Infected
by TeddyBear98
Summary: With Barry's powers in play, it's practically impossible for him to get sick. But when he does, it hits hard, and he begins to lose control of the very powers that should have prevented this misery in the first place. So what happens when the rogue metahumans and criminals begin to take advantage of the situation? Pure chaos ensues
1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! So, this is the beginning to my first multi-chapter Flash fanfic! I'm not exactly sure how many chapters it's going to be yet, but I'm excited! I know the first chapter is a little short, but the next ones will be longer! This is just kind of the introduction :) Anyways, hope you all enjoy! Review and give some feedback! ALSO, anyone who watched the season premier last night, feel free to PM me to talk about it! Because, like, what the actual hell? The feels. I cry

 **Infected**

Joe was going to kill his son. The kid had super speed, damn it, yet there the cop was at 7:20 in the morning running up the stairs to hurry _him_ along. It most definitely should have been the other way around. However, this was Barry he was dealing with; he had quite the track record for being late, even with his powers, apparently. He had waited as long as he could, but seeing as Barry still hadn't materialized downstairs, Joe made his way up and down the hallway to the young CSI's room.

"Barry!" Joe said exasperatedly as he reached the 26-year-old's closed bedroom door, knocking loudly. "What's the hold-up? You know we have to be in at 7:30! Singh will have your head if you're late again!" He waited a moment, listening. When there was no response, he grumbled a few choice words under his breath and shoved the door open, letting out a huff as he saw that Barry was still sound asleep in bed. This was not how he had wanted the morning to go, and he really didn't want to know what Singh would do if Barry once again didn't show up to work on time.

"Bar!" Joe said sternly, making his way across the room in seconds and shaking him. "Come on, time to get up." With a tired groan, Barry rolled over, clearly still half asleep as he tried to dodge Joe's hands.

"Five more minutes," he mumbled, and Joe let out a mix of an annoyed and frustrated noise. This wasn't the first time Barry's terrible sense of time had been an issue, especially when it came to getting himself to work; but it really shouldn't have been this hard to get him out of bed, and they did not have the time to waste. At this rate, Barry would have to use his speed to get Joe to the precinct as well, and the detective much preferred to use his car. If he was being honest, whenever Barry super-sped him anywhere, it always made him a little queasy. Two years, and he still wasn't quite used to the sensation.

"Barry, it's 7:25. Up!" Joe tried again, persistent. As Barry heard those words, he shot suddenly up like a rocket, earning himself a spot on the floor as he scrambled to untangle himself from his blanket and bedsheets and fell from the bed with another groan. Joe raised an eyebrow, his frustration seeming to slip away at least a little as he watched. Barry had always been a little clumsy, but this was a little excessive. "You okay, Bar?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Barry muttered as he stood, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Sorry, Joe, I guess I'm just tired," he apologized, blinking hard. "I'll be ready in a second and flash you there. Don't want you to be late." Joe opened his mouth, ready to say something, though not quite sure what. To protest being flashed to work? To ask about why Barry was tired enough to sleep through his alarm? He knew the boy had been dealing with a lot of metas lately, but even so, he was usually a light sleeper. Something about the whole situation seemed to be nagging at him, but it didn't matter; before Joe could utter a word, Barry had already grabbed his clothes and was gone a fraction of a second later, the only remnant of his presence the rush of air that hit Joe as the speedster hurried to get ready in the five minutes they had left.

* * *

Despite their press for time, both Barry and Joe managed to make it to work by 7:30. And miraculously, Joe managed not to empty the contents of his stomach once they got there. Under normal circumstances, Barry might have laughed at the somewhat queasy look on Joe's face. But as things were presently, he didn't particularly feel up to it. Oddly enough, the run had left him feeling somewhat queasy as well. It was because he hadn't been able to have a proper breakfast, he told himself as he climbed the stairs up to his lab. He would have to make it a point to grab one or two of Cisco's special protein bars during his lunch break with Joe. Pushing the already-fading feeling to the back of his mind, Barry set to work, determined to get through the thick stack of papers on the Ferguson case sitting on his desk.

The young forensic scientist sat down and, after a brief check to make sure no one was lurking around the hall outside, grabbed the stack, using his speed to read through it as quickly as possible. The task that should have taken perhaps a good fifteen minutes was finished in under a one, and Barry grinned to himself; even after having them for so long, his powers still excited him. His happy feeling wore off, however, when he stood to cross the lab to start on a blood splatter analysis and felt the queasiness slowly but surely returning, and the wave of dizziness that hit directly after. His smile turned into a frown as he tried willing both symptoms to go away, with minimal results. What the hell was going on? He _never_ got nauseated using his powers, and he hadn't gotten dizzy spells since the first week of obtaining his speed.

If he didn't know any better, he might have said he was getting sick. Barry turned the idea around in his head for a moment before snorting. He didn't get sick. That was also something that hadn't happened since he had obtained his speed. With his fast metabolism, it was basically impossible. With a sigh, he shook his head, trying to clear it. At the moment, he couldn't worry about it. He promised himself he would keep an eye on it, but right now he needed to work. If he didn't have this case done soon, he knew the captain would kick his ass. He had managed to stay out of trouble with his boss for the past few days, and he wasn't eager to blow his good streak.

Unfortunately, his determination to push through his progressing symptoms didn't seem to be enough to ignore the problem. By the time lunch break rolled around, Barry was finding it quite hard to focus on his work, and had barely made any progress with the damn case. When Joe came up to collect his son, it was to find him leaning on his desk with his eyes closed, massaging his temples with an annoyed look on his face. He hadn't appeared to hear the detective walk in.

"Barry?' Joe asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at him. Barry's eyes snapped open and focused on his foster dad with a bit of a startled expression. "You alright there, son?"

Barry's hands dropped and he nodded, blinking heavily and standing from his chair. "Yeah, I'm fine," he muttered, shaking his head as he had done earlier. Joe didn't look convinced, and Barry could tell by the look on his face. He offered him a sliver of a smile.

"Really, Joe. It's just a headache. I'm fine," he insisted. There was no need to tell him about the details of earlier; he didn't want to worry him. "Where are we going for lunch?" He headed for the open door of his lab.

"Barry -" Joe started, reaching out and grabbing his son by the arm. He frowned at how warm the limb felt and pulled him backwards, resting his palm on the 26-year-old's forehead despite the protests he was giving. "Bar, you have a fever," Joe said as he pulled his hand away, giving him a serious look as he crossed his arms. "I _knew_ something was off. You're sick."

Despite the way he was feeling, Barry couldn't help but scoff at Joe's words. "First off, you definitely can't tell if I have a fever just by feeling my head," he protested. "My temperature is always above average."

Joe was not looking convinced.

"And second of all," he continued, "That's ridiculous. I don't get sick, Joe."

Arms still crossed, the cop gave him a look that clearly said 'are you for real?' He was about to open his mouth to give a retort, but at that moment fate seemed to step in to help Joe's case, and there were two distinct sounds as he watched the events that took place in only seconds: Barry sneezing, and the resounding thud of him super-speeding himself into the wall directly after. The speedster fell backwards from the unexpected impact, landing on his back on the floor for the second time that day. Joe crossed the room in an instant and knelt down next to his son with concern, startled at the sudden development.

"Joe, I think I might be sick," Barry mumbled as he stared dazedly up at the ceiling; Joe grimaced.

"Come on, Bar," he said, helping him carefully back to his feet. "We're going to STAR Labs."


	2. Insight

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Here's chapter 2! I was miraculously able to get this up in two days! Unfortunately, however, I'm camping all weekend, so the next one won't be completed quite as soon! But, I will get it done and up as soon as I can! Anyways, enjoy and leave a quick review! Let me know what you think! Also, just and FYI, not much action in this chapter but it's necessary for the plot. Things will heat up next time!

* * *

Getting Barry to STAR had proven a more difficult task than Joe had initially thought it would be. First, he had had to inform the captain that Barry was sick and he needed to take him to see a doctor. Thankfully, in the state Barry was in, it wasn't that hard to convince the man that he really was ill. It hadn't been until he had walked all the way out to the parking lot supporting his still somewhat dazed son, however, that Joe had remembered he hadn't taken the car that morning; Barry had super-sped him there. Unfortunately, Barry super-speeding him out now was not currently an option. So, despite his reservations, he was forced to call Iris and ask her to come pick the both of them up. He knew that she too was on her lunch break, and the Central City Picture News building was closer to the precinct than STAR Labs was; she would be there quicker than either Caitlin or Cisco could be.

Not even ten minutes later, a familiar car came speeding into the parking lot, and Iris materialized out of it as soon as she had put it into park, walking over to her father.

"Is Barry okay?" she demanded. "Where is he?"

"Barry's fine, baby," Joe assured her, and motioned behind him to where Barry was leaning against the wall of the building, his head in his hands. Whether it was because of his headache, embarrassment over what had happened or both, however, Joe couldn't be sure. He didn't appear to notice that Iris had arrived, or surely he would have made some attempt to quench her worries as well.

"Barry," Joe called out to his son, and the scientist looked up, spotting Iris for the first time. He moved from the wall, slowly but more steady on his feet than he had been just a few minutes ago. It looked as if he had recovered from crashing into the wall of his lab, though Joe could tell he was definitely still sluggish. "Ready to go?"

Barry nodded resignedly; he didn't want to go to STAR, to have Caitlin fuss over him, but it was a little late for that. After sending himself speeding into a wall like an idiot after just one sneeze, he knew Joe would never let him weasel his way out of it. Though, admittedly, he supposed it couldn't hurt. He hadn't liked the feeling of losing control over his powers, even just momentarily.

"Yeah, I'm ready," he said, flashing Iris a brief, tight smile before getting into the back seat of the car and closing the door after him. As he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headrest, he could hear Joe and Iris talking in hushed tones as they too got into the car, as if they didn't want to disturb him. He could hear the worry in both of their voices, and fought back annoyance.

"Guys, I'm not dying," he said, peeling his eyes open to look at them. "It's probably just a stupid head cold. My powers should knock it right out."

Joe turned around in the passenger seat to look at him. "If we're going down that road, your powers should have prevented this," he countered. "If you're inadvertently running into walls just from sneezing, clearly there's some sort of problem."

As those words left Joe's mouth, Barry could feel Iris' eyes settling momentarily on him from the rearview mirror.

"Wait, you ran yourself into a wall? Like, with your superspeed?" she asked, concern dripping into her voice.

"Only once," Barry muttered, lowering his eyes to the floor of the car. He didn't particularly want to keep discussing the moment; it wasn't exactly one of the high points of his life.

"And once is one time too many," Joe said. "If anyone else in the precinct had seen it happen, it would have been a problem."

Barry didn't say anything in response to that; he didn't have to. He knew that Joe was right, and that he was lucky that only the detective had witnesses his sudden power outburst.

The car was silent the rest of the way to STAR Labs. Once they got there, both Joe and Iris offered to help support Barry, but he insisted that he was recovered from his earlier wall incident and could walk perfectly fine on his own. Despite his assurances, the father and daughter duo still kept a close eye on Barry as they walked through the doors of the vast building and headed to the elevator that would take them up to the Cortex. Once they made it to the proper floor, all three of them exited and were confronted with a somewhat startled Cisco, who clearly hadn't been expecting anyone. He raised an eyebrow at the group.

"Aren't you all supposed to be working?" he asked, and then turned his focus to Barry. "There hasn't been any metahuman activity; _I'm_ supposed to contact _you_ if you need to do your superhero thing," he added pointedly.

"Cisco, we're here because Barry is sick. Where's Caitlin?" Joe asked.

"Oh," Cisco replied, seeming a bit surprised. He eyed Barry again, as if searching for visible signs of illness. "She's in the med bay, still working on cleaning up from yesterday's incident."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "What happened yesterday?" she asked, echoing Joe's exact thoughts. Barry shot his friend a look, trying to silently communicate not to say anything, but he apparently didn't get the message.

"Oh, you didn't know? I thought Barry would have told you; he lost a lot of blood yesterday after a meta attack, and he kind of got it, like, everywhere."

"Cisco!" Barry groaned, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Barry!" Joe yelled at almost the same time. "What the hell? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Okay, can we not focus on this right now?" Barry asked exasperatedly. He was tired and still had a major headache; the last thing he wanted to do at the moment was discuss yesterday's events with Joe and Iris. He would rather willingly subject himself to an examination from Caitlin. Joe looked like he wanted to protest, but at that moment, said doctor came walking into the Cortex. She looked just as surprised to see the three of them as Cisco had minutes ago.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Hey, guys, what's going on?" she asked. Joe let out a sigh, deciding to let the other issue go for now in favor of dealing with the one presently at hand.

"Barry's sick," he explained shortly.

At hearing this, Caitlin frowned and strode over to where they all were gathered. "Sick?" she asked. "He shouldn't be sick." She had long ago determined that with Barry's extraordinary abilities, it was virtually impossible for him to contract any illness.

"That's what I said," the speedster muttered as Caitlin moved closer to him, looking him over carefully with her eyes. She then quickly put a hand to Barry's forehead as Joe had done earlier, a frown still gracing her features.

"But it does feel like you have a fever," she said thoughtfully, and Joe gave his son an 'I-told-you-so' look, which Barry did his best to ignore.

Caitlin gestured down the hallway with a sweep of her arm. "Med bay," she said demandingly. "I need to run some tests." With a barely suppressed sigh, Barry shuffled down the hallway to the room he had become quite familiar with during his time as the Flash. Once inside, he sat down on the edge of the bed as Caitlin, Cisco, Joe and Iris filed in after him. Thankfully, as Barry did a quick survey of the room, he saw that Caitlin had done a good job ridding it of the blood he had lost yesterday; he didn't want to give Joe and Iris any more reasons to worry over him.

Caitlin began rummaging around in the drawers for supplies, and soon drew out a thermometer, blood pressure cuff, tongue depressor, flashlight, an otoscope* and an ophthalmoscope.* Barry wanted to groan again at the sight of all of the different instruments, but held it in, knowing any protests wouldn't get him anywhere at this point.

"What exactly is bothering you?" the doctor asked as she walked over to where Barry was sitting, setting her supplies down on a medical cart beside the bed. "I need to know everything."

This time, Barry did let out a sigh. "Headache," he started to list. "Uh, I was dizzy and nauseous earlier from using my powers," he admitted reluctantly.

"You also sneezed and ran yourself into a wall," Iris supplied as Barry failed to mention it; the speedster shot her a look, but she wasn't fazed by it. Caitlin needed to know the information in order to be thorough.

Cisco snorted amusedly, which earned him an elbow to the ribs from Iris; Caitlin, on the other hand, frowned.

"Wait, you mean you lost control of your powers?" she asked. "You didn't mean you use your speed?"

"Do you really think I would intentionally run myself into a wall at 100 miles per hour?" he asked sarcastically, unable to help himself. Cisco once again seemed very amused at this, trying to hold back a laugh as Iris shot him a glare; Caitlin crossed her arms.

"Barry, this is serious," she said. "Did anything else like that happen? Any other instances of losing control?"

Barry shook his head. "No," he said. "It was probably just a fluke," he added with a shrug; he didn't like the way everyone, minus Cisco apparently, seemed concerned over the development. He wanted to play it cool. Unfortunately, at that very moment, he felt a tickle in his nose, and he let loose another sneeze - and suddenly found himself careening off the bed right into a very surprised Cisco, sending the both of them toppling to the floor in a heap. For a moment, no one moved, looking on in surprise. When the two boys on the floor groaned, they all snapped into action. Caitlin moved to help Cisco up while Iris and Joe grabbed Barry, pulling him to his feet.

"Dude, not cool," Cisco muttered, his amusement vanishing.

"And not a fluke," Caitlin noted as Iris and Joe guided the sick hero back to the bed, easing him into a sitting position; he didn't look happy.

"Okay, well, how do we fix it?" he asked, clearly agitated. Caitlin didn't blame him; it couldn't be fun to be vaulted into various objects every time he had to sneeze.

"...I don't know yet," Caitlin said. "But I'll find out," she added determinedly, picking up the thermometer from where she had placed it on the medical cart. "Mouth open."

* * *

By the end of Caitlin's examination a half hour later, the only thing that had been determined for sure was that Barry did, in fact, have a fever. Nothing had seemed odd to her throughout the entire thing, which was truly the weird part. It just seemed as if Barry had a normal, run-of-the-mill illness. One, however, that she knew he shouldn't have gotten.

"I don't get it," she muttered frustratedly to Cisco. She was standing with him in the Cortex, looking over her notes and results from the tests she had conducted. Joe and Iris were still with Barry in the med bay, keeping an eye on him as she went over everything. "I can't find any logical reason why he is sick, or why it would cause his powers to go haywire."

Cisco shrugged. "I mean, does there really have to be a reason? He's already not normal," he said. "Won't this just run its course?"

Caitlin sighed frustratedly. "I don't know, Cisco, because I don't know what's causing it," she said. "I don't _get_ it."

Cisco gave his friend a light, comforting pat on the shoulder a she continued to look over the sheets in her hands, looking for anything she might have missed; he knew she hated it when she came across something she couldn't understand, especially when it came to a patient. And double especially if that patient was Barry.

"I mean, he's been working hard lately," he offered. "Maybe he's just overexerting himself, you know? And yesterday probably didn't help matters."

At hearing that, Caitlin's expression became thoughtful, and then suddenly lit up as an idea came to her.

"Cisco, that's it!" she cried.

"Uhm, what -?" he started to ask, not quite sure what she meant, but she had already started quickly down the hallway towards the med bay, leaving Cisco to follow confusedly after her. As she burst back into the room, the three occupants looked up at her hopefully.

"Barry, with the meta yesterday - you said she wound up fairly injured too, right? Before she got away?" Barry looked sheepish at the question; it was bad enough Joe and Iris had found out that he had been injured; now they also knew he had let the meta girl get away.

"Well, yeah -" Caitlin cut him off before he could add to his words.

"By any chance did you get any of her blood on you?"

Barry's eyebrows furrowed as he thought. "...I'm not sure. I guess it's possible. But what does that have to do with anything?" By the looks on everyone else's faces, it was clear that they all had the same question, and looked to Caitlin for an answer.

"I think that might be why you're sick." There was silence for a moment as the information was processed; Iris was the first to speak up.

"Wait, why would this meta girl's blood make him sick?" she asked.

Caitlin took a deep breath before offering an explanation. "I think it might have to do with her DNA mixing with Barry's. Metahumans - each and every one of their DNA was altered by the Dark Matter after the particle accelerator exploded. So what if her blood is acting as some sort of foreign substance, or virus, that his body his trying to rid itself of? It would make him sick in the process, and because it's more of a metahuman based illness, _that's_ why it's messing with his powers."

There was silence for another moment before it was once again broken, this time by Barry.

"Okay...I guess that makes sense. So how do I stop it from progressing?"

At this, Caitlin gave him an apologetic look. "If I had an isolated sample of her blood, I might be able to develop some sort of cure or vaccine. But since we don't have her in custody...Well, I think you just have to wait it out. Let it run it's course."

Barry looked less than happy at this news. "How long is that going to take? I can't afford to have my powers acting up," he said seriously. "Not with the influx of metas."

Caitlin shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, Barry, there's no real way to tell. But in the meantime, you need to be taking it easy. You should rest, and use your speed as little as possible."

Barry looked like he was about to protest, but Caitlin spoke again before he could, effectively cutting him off. "Don't even try to argue," she said firmly. "If you want to protect the city, you need to be at full strength. Otherwise, it could spell disaster."

"The police force is capable, Bar," Joe inputted helpfully. "And we do still have the boots."

"Yeah, but you're not fully equipped to handle metas, Joe," Barry protested. "I always help. I -"

This time, the speedster was cut off by a blaring alarm going off in the Cortex, one that they all knew the meaning of: crime alert. Caitlin immediately opened her mouth.

"Barry, don't you dare -" she started, but it was too late. Faster than they could blink, the hero had already raced out of the room to get the location. In milliseconds, he had changed into his suit and was speeding away from STAR Labs, leaving his concerned friends and family behind.


	3. Progression

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, I'm back again with another chapter! I hope you all enjoy this one! Please, review if you get the chance! They really keep me going! Let me know what you think!

* * *

Barry was going to be in a lot of trouble later. He had been well aware of that the moment he had fled from STAR Labs and left his team in the dust. At the moment, however, as he raced through the streets of Central City faster than the speed of light, he couldn't bring himself to care. What he did care about was that there were people in danger, and that they needed him; they needed the Flash.

It took under a minute for the speedster to make it to the Central City Bank. As he skidded to a stop in front of the entrance, however, he felt all of the dizziness and nausea he had experienced earlier that morning return unbidden after the use of his powers. But he took only a moment to collect himself before zipping into the bank, doing his best to push the feelings to the back of his mind. No matter how shitty he felt, he couldn't focus on it. He had to fight through it, especially since he was currently the only one on the scene; the police had yet to arrive.

Barry scanned the bank as he stood there, searching the faces of the terrified citizens for answers. He heard many of them muttering his name hopefully as they spotted him. Not yet seeing the person responsible for setting off the alarms, Barry took quick control over the situation.

"Go, get out of here!" he shouted; the hostages did not need to be told twice. At his prompting, they all got up, scattering around him as they ran for the doors. It was as he heard them close, signalling that everyone had safely gotten out that the perpetrator finally showed their face, stepping out of the vault with a bag filled with what could only be cash. Barry would have loved to say that it was only a common criminal that could easily be taken down even in his current state. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and his stomach did a flip as his eyes landed on a girl he immediately recognized.

"Flash," said the all too familiar voice of Shawna Baez, also known as Peek-a-boo. By Cisco, at least. "Not surprised to see you here."

"Well, I'm a little surprised to see you," Barry replied, keeping his voice calm and confident despite the fact that that was definitely not the way he felt. "I thought you would have taken your chance at escape more seriously and move on from Central City."

Shawna had been one of the metahumans freed by Leonard Snart on the night of a would-be transfer to Oliver's private island prison. Out of all of them, Barry would have pegged Shawna as the one who would be smart enough to get far away. Apparently, that wasn't the case.

Shawna shrugged, a grin on her face. "What can I say? Central City is home," she said. And then she was gone in a puff of black smoke, the bag disappearing with her. Barry knew she couldn't be far, however. There was a downside to her powers; she could only teleport somewhere she could see. Barry whirled around and sped out of the building and, sure enough, there she was just down the street. He zoomed in her direction, but found himself stumbling as he made it in front of her, his dizziness returning with a vengeance. He straightened, but it was no sooner than he had he done so that he broke into a sudden coughing fit, causing lightning to crackle around him in waves. Barry winced; that was definitely new. Shawna watched with rapt interest.

"What's the matter, Flash? Not feeling well?" she asked with mock sympathy.

"Well enough to take you on," Barry replied, but the threat sounded lame even to him, his voice hoarse from his coughing spasm. He sped at her anyways, but she was gone again in an instant. Before he had time to react, he felt pain erupt in his back, and he was down on the ground from the sudden hit. He rolled over to see Shawna standing over him with an amused smile spread across her face.

"Honestly, Flash, this is just pathetic," she told him as the sound of sirens came into earshot; the police force was finally arriving, though it was a little late for their intervening. "We'll have to try this again sometime soon." With a salute using the hand that wasn't holding the money sack, Shawna disappeared once again, and Barry knew he didn't have the energy to go after her. He had barely even done anything, but in all honesty, he was struggling even just to find the energy to get himself up off of the ground upon which he was still lying. His vision was swimming, and he blinked hard and slow, trying to clear it. The sirens were getting louder, and he could hear the murmuring of the concerned onlookers who had gathered, both sounds blending together and pounding uncomfortably in his head. He sat up with a sharp intake of breath, his vision still foggy and disorienting. Standing was a battle, but he finally managed and ran quickly from the noise and the crowd, back to STAR Labs.

He materialized seconds later in the Cortex to the surprise of the small group still occupying it, but he didn't have the time to take in their expressions. As he came to an unsteady halt, the world seemed to collapse around him, and the sensation of falling came almost in slow motion.

The last thing he was aware of was the warbled cacophony of voices calling his name before everything went black.

* * *

Caitlin was not at all pleased with the current predicament. She would have loved to say that Barry had willingly taken her advice to rest and not use his powers until he was better, but no, _of course_ that wasn't the case. The second the crime alert had gone off, he had been gone in - well, in a flash. The pun might have been comical, if things weren't so serious. The speedster had failed to put his com on before fleeing STAR Labs, so they had no way of reaching him. All they could do was huddle around the monitors, keeping a careful eye on Barry's tracker and vitals.

After the speedster had taken off, Joe had immediately wanted to go after him, to do something. Despite wanting the same thing, she had managed to convince him that staying here was the best option. Joe's police coworkers would already be on the way to the scene, and Barry would be back eventually. And when he did come back, she knew it would be best if they were all there to help him. Or, more accurately, to help her. If anything happened, it would be good to have the extra hands for tending to him. She knew she had made the right call when his vitals on the screen started fluctuating. From that point, it was about two more solid minutes of anxiously waiting before Barry came speeding back in.

At first glance, Barry seemed relatively fine. Though there was no accounting for anything under his suit, and he looked unnaturally pale as he skidded to a wobbly halt. Suddenly everyone was on high alert, moving towards him, calling out his name with worry mingled in their voices. He didn't even meet their eyes, however, and seconds later he was down for the count, his eyes rolling up in his head as his knees buckled and his body met the hard floor. Caitlin was the first to reach him, and she knelt down beside his sprawled out form, peeling back his cowl and putting two fingers to his neck to check his pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief as she felt it beating steadily, perhaps a little fainter than usual but still there.

"Barry. Barry, can you hear me?" she asked as the others made it to the unconscious man as well, all hovering over him, their concern palpable. Barry didn't respond, just continued to lie limp, breathing rhythmically in and out as if he were just asleep. That, at least, was good; a visual sign that he was alive.

"What's wrong with him?" Iris asked, her mouth pulled into a tight frown as she looked down at Barry.

"I don't know yet. Joe, Cisco, get him into a bed," Caitlin instructed. The two men didn't need to be told twice. Within seconds they had Barry's weight supported between them and carried him rather easily off down the hallway to the med bay.

"Iris, go with them," Caitlin added after a moment. "Get his suit off, I need to examine him. I'll be there in a minute." Iris nodded solemnly and was gone just as fast as her father and Cisco. Caitlin took a moment to gather herself, taking a deep breath before grabbing clean gloves from her stash. When she made it to the med bay, it was to see Barry lying still in the bed that just minutes ago he had been sitting on, aware. He was in only his boxer briefs. In light of him being the Flash, and constantly getting himself injured, she couldn't even say that this was a new sight for her. Modesty was a thing of the past at STAR Labs.

Caitlin frowned as she got closer and her eyes raked over her friend's body; not because of injuries, but ironically because of the lack of them. He looked completely fine, but she knew that couldn't be the case; there was some reason he had passed out. Was this all illness based? The young doctor stood over the speedster, doing another quick once-over before grabbing a syringe from a nearby drawer and pulling on her gloves, grabbing Barry's arm to search for a prominent vein she could use to draw blood. She grimaced at how hot he seemed even without touching him with bare hands. She would have to take his temperature again; it appeared that it might have gone up, and that couldn't indicate anything good after such a short amount of time.

"Why are you taking blood?" Joe asked from his place beside the bed as Caitlin slid the syringe into his arm and began filling it with the warm, red liquid.

"I want to study what's happening with it," she explained. "He doesn't have any visible injuries, which would suggest that his loss of consciousness was caused by his illness. If that's the case, then the symptoms show themselves more when he uses his speed." She finished drawing the blood sample and capped the syringe, placing it on the medical cart that still sat idle next to the bed.

"So it gets worse when he uses his powers," Cisco said slowly, almost a question, trying to interpret what Caitlin had said.

"In theory, yes."

Joe let out a sigh, massaging his temples as he looked down at his son. "That would make sense," he said. "This morning, he was practically fine."

"How many times did he use his powers?" Caitlin asked as she reached for the thermometer, sticking into Barry's mouth and turning her head to look at Joe.

"I don't know," the detective admitted. "At least twice. He overslept this morning, so he used them to get ready and then to get us both to work. I didn't see him again until lunch, when we brought him here. At that point things had escalated a lot."

Caitlin nodded thoughtfully, taking the thermometer from Barry's mouth now and reading it with a frown. It had definitely gone up. Before he had left, it had been 102.3. Now it was pushing 104, and she didn't like the rapid acceleration. If he didn't already have a higher body temperature, it would have been even higher cause for concern. With a sigh, she put the thermometer back down and grabbed the blood-filled syringe again.

"His fever's gone up," she informed her friends. "I don't like how everything is progressing so quickly. I need to look at his blood now and see exactly what's happening; Cisco, you should stay here and keep an eye on him. Joe, Iris, why don't you two head back to work? I wouldn't want you both to get in trouble. We can handle him."

Iris shook her head firmly. "We're not leaving," she said. "I'll call Linda, ask her to cover for me."

"And I already told Singh I was leaving," Joe input. Caitlin nodded, seeing no point in arguing the matter. She supposed it would be better to have them here anyways.

"Alright, fine. Then why don't you get him into a pair of sweats?"

* * *

"Baby? I'm back!" Shawna called out as she walked into the abandoned warehouse she and her boyfriend had been calling home for the past several weeks, the sack of money from the bank slung over her shoulder. Despite the fact that he had abandoned her when they had both been apprehended by the Flash some time ago, Shawna had still managed to find her way back to Clay Parker. What could she say? It wasn't her finest moment, but she had admittedly never quite gotten over him.

Clay materialized from the opposite side of the warehouse, striding over purposefully and eyeing the bag she carried greedily. "Took longer than it should have. How much did you get?" he asked as she set the bag down on the floor.

"30 grand," she replied. "And it might have been a little faster if you had wanted to help," she added haughtily.

"I need to keep a low profile," he replied. "I'm the one who was actually in prison, remember? Not some makeshift meta jail. And besides, you're the one with the teleporting abilities; you're better off by yourself."

Shawna rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, guess what else."

"What?" he questioned, his voice mostly uninterested as he opened up the sack and began rifling through it, looking quite pleased at the large quantity of cash.

"The Flash showed up."

Clay looked up at this. "Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and seeming slightly more interested now. The Flash was a real pain in the ass; he had been the one to ruin the nice thing him and Shawna had had going. He had been the one who had caught up with them and forced him to flee, taking Shawna, the one true asset he had upon being broken out of prison, away.

"And you were just able to get away? Last time he caught you."

Shawna scowled at him. "It's not like you were there to help me," she pointed out. "But anyways, there was something off about him. He wasn't on his game."

"How so?"

Shawna paused. "I think - I think he might be sick or something," she replied. "He could barely even run without tripping up. Then he practically started coughing up a lung, and lightning just went crackling all around him. It was way too easy to take him down."

As Clay processed this information, he suddenly started to chuckle. Shawna raised an eyebrow this time, arms still crossed as she examined her boyfriend. "What's so funny?"

"Babe, the Flash is literally the glue that holds this entire damn city together. He practically does the police's work for them. If there's actually something wrong with him, do you know how easy it would be to get away with crime? We could have Central City eating out of the palms of our hands!"

Shawna gave him a skeptical look. "We're just two people, Clay," she said. "The police force may have gone a little soft since the Flash has shown up, but they're not useless."

"But the Flash is always the one to handle metas," he pointed out, giving her a pointed look. "The CCPD can barely handle one." He smirked. "How well do you think they'd be able a group?"

"What are you suggesting, Clay?" she asked.

A pause, and them. "How many metahumans do you know?"


	4. Repercussions

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter! It seems to be a weekly occurrence now, as opposed to my first update which was done in two days lol. Sorry, college has got me busy busy busy! Anyways, enjoy! Leave a review if you feel inclined! Not much action again in this chapter, but it will pick up! Had to get some plot in!

* * *

For someone who spent a lot of time doing things unnaturally fast, Barry came to rather slowly. The first thing he was aware of was the sound of voices close by wherever he was. His ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton, but he managed to make out snippets of what was being said.

"...fever...down a little." Barry thought the voice most likely belonged to Cisco, though it was a little hard to tell.

"...good sign? Will...up soon?" The second voice was hopeful, and he knew immediately that this one at least belonged to Iris.

"...not sure. I'll go get Caitlin." As the speech became clearer suddenly, he could now hear footsteps fading away, presumably Cisco leaving the room. And then there was the sensation of fingers brushing softly through his hair. Just as he was positive the second voice had belonged to Iris, Barry was certain that the light, gentle touch also belonged to her. He almost subconsciously tilted his head, pressing it closer into her hand as his eyes started to flutter in an attempt to open them.

The hand froze in its action, pulling away, and Iris's voice rang out again, clearer this time.

"Barry?"

The speedster let out a soft groan, and his eyes finally opened, blinking lazily up at Iris as they focused. She looked incredibly relieved, though there was another emotion mixed into her features that Barry couldn't quite identify at the moment, as groggy as he felt. To top that off, his head was pounding again, he was hot and felt vaguely disoriented.

"How do you feel? Are you okay?"

It took a moment to answer as the memories of what had happened came back to him, but he slowly nodded. "I'm fine," he said, offering her a light smile.

She didn't return it, however. Instead, she uttered out a quick "good" before raising the hand she had moments ago been running through his hair to smack his arm none-too-lightly.

"Then what the _hell_ were you thinking, Barry?" she demanded sternly, and Barry now sheepishly acknowledged that the other emotion showing on Iris' face was anger. Anger at him.

"You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt, or -"

"Iris." Barry cut her off, running a hand over his face with a sigh. She looked at him expectantly, and he slowly sat up under her watchful eye. "I didn't. I'm fine."

"You're far from fine, Barry," Iris replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "You've been unconscious for the past half hour. It was stupid to go out there while you're like this."

"I can't stop being the Flash because of a little cold, Iris. People need me."

"But it's more than just a cold, Barry!" Iris said heatedly. "This is something entirely different that none of us have dealt with before!"

Barry frowned, and opened his mouth to try and defend himself further when a figure appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, dude, you're up!" Cisco said chipperly. He raised an eyebrow however when he saw the frustrated look on Iris's face. "...am I interrupting something?" he asked. Iris shook her head, giving Cisco a ghost of a smile.

"I think I've about made my point," she said with a pointed look at the speedster, who shifted uncomfortably. He probably had not heard the end of it from her, but at least she was done chewing him out for now. Just moments later, Caitlin came striding into the room, looking relieved as her eyes landed on her now-conscious friend. She immediately walked over, pulling a penlight out from the pocket of the lab coat she was now wearing.

"How do you feel?" she asked, wasting no time shining the light into his eyes to check his pupil reaction as she simultaneously grabbed the thermometer Cisco had previously been holding and shoved it into his mouth. Barry, overwhelmed by the sudden attention, swatted the hand with the penlight away, squinting and trying to blink the spots he was now seeing out of his vision.

"I'm _fine,_ " he managed to mouth around the thermometer, which he allowed her to keep in his mouth. She tugged it out a few seconds later, studying it with a nod.

"You're right, Cisco, it did go down." She then looked back over at Barry, and as he got a good look at her expression, he braced himself for what was coming next.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" she asked sternly, just as Iris had only minutes ago. "Honestly, Barry, after I had _just_ told you to relax and _not_ use your powers, you just zoom out like that? Are you insane?"

Barry rubbed a hand tiredly over his face, wanting to squirm under the feeling of three concerned (and two angry) pairs of eyes watching him. He kept himself still and did his best to stay calm, however.

"Cait -" he started, but was effectively cut off by said doctor.

"Don't you 'Cait' me, Barry," she said. "It was stupid and rash. I'm sure the cops could have handled it without you putting your neck on the line while you're like this."

Barry let a tinge of the annoyance he was starting to feel creep onto his face. He understood that they didn't approve of what he had done, but he had only been doing what he had felt he needed to, consequences be damned.

"Really?" he asked, slightly snappish. "You think they would have been able to handle Shawna Baez on their own?" He decided not to bring up the fact that he hadn't exactly been able to handle her either. For a moment, there was a stunned silence. Cisco was the one to break it.

"Shawna Baez. As in like, Peekaboo Shawna Baez? The teleporting metahuman?"

"Do you know another Shawna Baez?" Barry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought she had skipped town after Snart let her and the other go," Iris said. She of course hadn't been in on Barry's secret at the time this had all gone down, but she had been filled in since then.

"Yeah, so did I," Barry muttered.

"Well what happened?" Caitlin asked expectantly. Barry rubbed the back of his neck, not quite wanting to elaborate on the details, but also knowing he would have to.

"When I used my powers, the symptoms started to get worse," he let out reluctantly. "I…" He sighed before continuing. "I couldn't take her," he said finally, fiddling with the waistband of the sweatpants he had somehow ended up in; he didn't like admitting weakness, not even to the people he was so close to.

"I got dizzy again, and nauseous," he muttered. "And she...realized I wasn't up to par. She noticed when I had a coughing fit and took advantage of the fact that I wasn't on my game." He didn't meet any of his friend's eyes, still picking at the band on his pants.

"What happened when you coughed?" Caitlin asked, raising an eyebrow. With his current track record of inadvertently running any time he sneezed, it would make sense if there were to be another malfunction associated with his coughing.

"Lightning," Barry admitted. "Lots of lightning."

Caitlin sighed at this. "We're going to need to keep a close eye on this. We can't have you going around coughing lightning and sneezing yourself into walls and God-knows-what-else. You'll expose yourself for sure, and that wouldn't be good for anybody."

Barry didn't argue; he knew that she was right. There was silence for a moment, but it was broken by a sudden realization from Barry.

"Wait a minute, where's Joe?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed as he seemed to notice for the first time that his foster father wasn't in the room.

"He felt insistent that he needed to do something productive," Iris told him. "Caitlin sent him to see if he could get some petri dishes from the precinct."

At Barry's questioning look, Caitlin hurried to explain. "We're running low, and I need more if I want to be able to keep examining your blood," she said. "Speaking of which, I took a sample while you were out, and looking at it confirms that the foreign DNA is attacking your blood cells," she added seriously. "And while I don't have a sample prior to your fight with Shawna to compare this one with, it's looking like it becomes more vigorous when you use your powers, Barry."

"What does that mean?" Cisco asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It means," Caitlin continued, "That the use of his powers worsens the illness. It looks like you got lucky this time; there are no dangerous lasting effects, but there's no telling how bad things will get the more you use them. Which just confirms the fact that you _need_ to take it easy until you start to get better."

Barry did not look pleased by this news, but with the stern looks he was receiving from both girls in the room, and in light of what had just happened, he didn't feel he was in the best position to protest at the moment. Not to mention, even if he wouldn't admit it quite yet, he knew that Caitlin had a point. He wasn't of much use to anyone if he was too weak to take properly deal with metas.

Seeming satisfied that Barry wasn't arguing with her, Caitlin turned to leave the room. "I need to go store your bloodwork," she said on her way out of the door. "Cisco, come help?" At her request, Cisco gave a quick nod to Barry and Iris before following his friend out of the med bay.

Iris looked over to Barry once more; said speedster seemed to be sulking, and she couldn't help feeling a bit amused. Barry was could sometimes be rather childlike when things didn't go his way.

"Barry, come one, taking a small break isn't that bad," she said as she watched him momentarily shake from a sudden chill; his fever at work, she guessed. "Really, you -" She cut herself off, something else having caught her attention. "Uhm, Bar?"

She sounded slightly concerned, pointing down at one of Barry's hands. He followed her gaze, and nearly cursed when he saw that it was vibrating. He hadn't even felt it start up. Great, he thought. Yet another ability gone haywire; now a simple chill was apparently enough to set his powers off. Barry shook the appendage, trying to make it stop, but found it was to no avail. The opposite happened in fact, and within seconds is second hand was vibrating as well. Barry shook both hands fervently now as he willed them to stop. Soon, however, the speedster found his entire body unwillingly vibrating quickly, his figure blurred as Iris watched, unsure of whether she should run to get Caitlin or try to handle this herself. She didn't quite want to leave him alone.

"Goddammit!" Barry yelled out, actually cursing this time, his voice distorted as it sometimes was as the Flash.

"Bar, just try -" Iris started, but Barry didn't get to hear the rest of his words as he found himself phasing through the bed and then down through the floor below with an annoyed, surprised yelp of "Oh come on!" before disappearing from sight.

When Joe walked in seconds later carrying the bag of petri dishes he had obtained, it was to find his daughter staring at an empty bed with a shocked look on her face, frozen.

"Uh...where's Barry?"

* * *

"How the hell did you find me?" The voice of Roy Bivolo surprisingly wasn't angry, but rather surprised and tinged with annoyance.

"I have my ways," Shawna replied mysteriously, the corners of her mouth tugging up to form a slight smirk.

The pair was standing in the living area of Roy's small apartment, which Shawna had popped into quite unexpectedly, catching the former villain of Central City off guard.

"What do you _want_?" the man asked now, arms crossing over his chest as he began to lose the little patience he had with the girl; it wasn't good when he lost his patience. "I didn't move away from Central City to be plagued by annoyances from my past."

"The real question is, what do _you_ want?" Shawna countered, crossing her arms as well as she looked at the man standing in front of her.

"For you to get out of my apartment?" he suggested.

Shawna gave a sliver of an amused smile. "Try revenge on the Flash."

At those words, Bivolo seemed to ease slightly, appearing more interested. "I'm listening."

"You had a good thing going for you in Central City, until the Flash ruined it," she said. "I'm offering you the chance of a lifetime to get back at him, and to take back Central City."

"And how, dear girl, are you planning on doing that?"

"With the help of others like us," she replied. "And pure luck, as fate would have it. As it would happen, the Flash is a little under the weather at the moment."

Bivolo raised an eyebrow. "You're saying he's sick?"

Shawna nodded, her smirk once again returning. "Yes, quite. He couldn't even stop me from robbing a bank."

At hearing this, the corners of Bivolo's mouth began to turn up in a wicked smile as well.

"Tell me more."

 **Author's Note:** Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter! And thanks to the guest Emberlynne for suggesting the power fluke with Barry's phasing, that was amusing for me to write! Until next time!


	5. Jail Break

**Author's Note:** So, I got this chapter done and up way sooner than I thought I would! I can't promise this quick of an update for all chapters, but I got lucky this time! Which is great, because now I can start working on the more action/drama-filled chapters. Good for you guys. Not so good for Team Flash. Oh well. Read on! Leave a review if you can! And look out for my important note at the end!

 **Also, to the guest Emberlynne:** No problem girl! It was a great, hilarious idea! I was very excited to use it, so thanks for the suggestion! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and I hope you have an amazing week as well!

* * *

Upon Caitlin's insistence, Barry did not go home that night. He stayed at STAR Labs, where she could keep an eye on him and his power outbursts. She also wanted to monitor the fractured wrist he had received from phasing himself through the floor of the med bay to see how it would heal; his healing abilities were a little on the fritz what with everything that was happening. It was just her and the speedster in the complex. Cisco had gone home around ten, claiming exhaustion; Caitlin swore that he never got enough sleep, always up late tinkering with some new device or doohickey. Joe and Iris had wanted to stay, but Caitlin had managed to convince them to go home and get some rest, assuring them that Barry was in good hands with her and that she would not let anything happen to him.

Presently it was 1:00 in the morning, and the doctor let out a yawn as she watched Barry sleeping peacefully from the chair she had set up next to his bed. It had taken a while for him to fall asleep, what with the pain in his injured wrist and the symptoms of his illness still regularly plaguing him. He had sneezed himself into the medical cart two separate times before Caitlin had had to move it away from the bed, and had nearly electrocuted her once after breaking into a coughing fit. The speedster had profusely apologized at least a dozen times, but Caitlin knew he couldn't help himself; it wasn't his fault that any of this was happening. It was good to finally see him at ease after a long, worrisome day, getting the rest he desperately needed and deserved.

At least asleep, his power outbursts seemed to be contained; though she hadn't said anything yet, she was starting to slightly worry that they might be a hinderance to his body fighting off the illness. After all, it worsened when he used his powers, and he was inadvertently using them a lot. The doctor sighed, running a hand through her hair. _Don't get ahead of yourself,_ she thought. _You don't have any evidence yet._ It didn't do much to quell her worries. She played with the hem of her shirt.

Around 1:30, she was beginning to doze off, despite her best efforts to stay awake to keep an eye on her ill friend. She was so tired, and for now Barry was safe and stable...her eyes had just drifted closed when an alarm ringing out from one of the monitors in the Cortex snapped her back into full consciousness, her heart pounding in her startled state. Her eyes immediately trailed over to Barry, sure that the sound must have woken him as well. In his sleep, the speedster's face scrunched up at the disturbance, and he let out a small noise, but other than that did not stir. Caitlin let out a breath of relief she hadn't known she was holding, belatedly realizing that she had been worried her friend would rush out to save the day as he had before, leaving himself even more worse off. His need for rest had apparently won out over his usually light sleeping habits, however, keeping him unaware as Caitlin made her way out of the med bay to silence the noise, checking the screen to see what had set off the alarm.

Her eyebrows furrowed, the corners of her mouth tugging down into a frown as she saw what had happened; apparently metas had been broken out of the metahuman wing at Iron Heights. Metas, plural. A total of three of them, Caitlin read, and she bit at her lip. The alert didn't specify which three had managed to escape the prison, but no matter who they were, it couldn't be good. The metas locked in that wing were dangerous, and in Barry's current state, there was no way he would be able to handle them. What worried her most, however, was that she knew he would want to go after them as soon as he found out, which would not be good for his health. And it begged the question: should she tell him at all? Sure, he would find out eventually; the freed metas would definitely not stay quiet and hidden for long. But in the meantime, perhaps it was best not to clue the superhero in. Caitlin glanced down the hallway to the room where Barry slept with another sigh, running a hand through her hair. She would have to discuss this with the others when they arrived later. For now, she would keep an eye on both Barry and the monitors. She would not be getting any sleep.

* * *

When Barry woke up several hours later, it was, surprisingly, to find no one in the med bay with him. The speedster's eyebrows furrowed a bit as he slowly sat up, blinking hard to clear the sleep from his eyes. The chair where Caitlin had been sitting during the night was definitely empty, but he could hear the echo of voices murmuring from down the hall. After getting out of bed and throwing on his STAR Labs sweatshirt and his shoes, he slowly made his way out of bed and towards the noise, curiosity written on his face. When he made it to the Cortex, it was to see Caitlin, Cisco, Iris and Joe all together, talking in hushed voices; none of them had heard him approach.

"I don't know, it seems kind of wrong not to tell him," Cisco was saying.

"I know it does, but it would be for his own good," Caitlin countered. "Barry is far from out of the clear after yesterday, and if he couldn't even handle Shawna…" she trailed off.

Iris, her expression troubled, opened her mouth to get out a reply, but Barry interrupted before he could.

"What is it that you don't want to tell me?" he asked, arms crossed over his chest. His voice was rough and scratchy, a mix of tiredness and sick, but the hint of annoyance behind it was still evident. He didn't know what it was they were debating hiding from him, but either way, it felt like a small stab of betrayal. Even if they _were_ just concerned about him.

"Barry!" Caitlin said in surprise, her voice an octave higher than usual and sounding decidedly guilty. "We were just -"

"What is it that you don't want to tell me?" he repeated, walking farther into the room and meeting each set of eyes with purpose, insistent. For a moment, no one said anything, all of them shifting uncomfortably where they sat or stood as they cast unsure glances at one another.

"Three metas were broken out of Iron Heights yesterday," Cisco finally blurted, not liking the uncomfortable silence and the look Barry was giving all of them. "We don't know which ones or by who."

Barry took only a moment to process the information he had just been given before his annoyed expression turned angry and accusing.

"And you had to question whether or not you would tell me!?" he asked, his voice raising in volume. The sudden change sent him coughing briefly, lightning crackling around his body. He stumbled a bit at the action.

"Barry -" Iris started, taking a step towards him in concern.

"Don't," Barry said as he recovered, straightening and taking a step backwards as she moved forwards; she frowned.

"Barry, you're in no shape to try and deal with them," Caitlin tried, keeping her voice calm and reasonable despite the fact that she felt neither of those things. "You need to be rational -"

"I am rational!" the speedster protested.

"You weren't yesterday," Joe interjected, more forcefully than he had initially intended. "We don't want you to do anything stupid. We're just trying to help you, Barry."

"You can help me by being _honest,_ " he said, voice still accusing. In the back of his mind, he knew he was probably being a little harsh. But he didn't at all like the fact that the people he trusted had even considered going behind his back with something as important as this.

When he made his way swiftly out of the room and down the stairwell, he at least had enough sense not to use his speed, even though he wanted to get out fast. He didn't even know where he was going. To the precinct, to figure out which metas had escaped? To hunt them down? Both ideas were stupid, and he knew it, but he didn't just want to do nothing, either; not like everyone back in the lab apparently wanted him to do. He was almost homefree, out of the building when he heard rapid footsteps descending down the stairs behind him, someone having shaken of their stupor to follow him. He didn't turn around to see who it was, one hand on the door, ready to leave.

"Barry, come on, don't do this." It was Iris's voice, firm but pleading. "Where are you even going?"

"Somewhere not here," he replied vaguely, his head craning a bit to watch her but a hand still poised at the door.

"Can you really blame us for thinking about keeping it from you?" she asked him, lips pursed. "After what you did yesterday? With the way things have been going for you?" she asked.

Barry didn't answer, so she pushed on.

"You're not doing well, Bar. Your powers aren't stable. You look even sicker than you did yesterday. If you keep on a path like this and don't stay out of trouble, you're only going to get worse."

Barry only turned his head away. "I appreciate your concern, Iris," he said. "I really do. But I can make decisions for myself." He pushed the door open, walking out of the building. Iris, persistent as always, followed him out.

"Barry, you do not want to leave this lab," she said, her voice warning. "Don't be stupid. What if you have another outburst?"

The speedster stopped in his tracks at the words, not yet turning around. He bit at his lip. He hadn't even thought about that, but of course she was right. When was Iris not right? It would be stupid to walk away, despite wanting to get out, to disappear into the throng of the city and clear his head. To do _something_ other than hole up in STAR and be useless. His incident with Shawna had left him quite aware that he wasn't really in any state to be the Flash, but it also had left him wanting to somehow redeem himself. The confliction was quite annoying. He was still standing there frozen when Iris closed the gap between them and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Come back inside," she said gently. "Get back in bed. We'll work this out, okay? But you don't need to put yourself in danger to do it."

Barry took a deep breath, turning around to face her. And he almost listened to her, almost decided to get back into bed and rest, to hear what his friends and family had to say. He really did.

But then he heard the screaming.

* * *

 _30 minutes prior_

"You're clear on the plan?"

It was 8:30 in the morning, and Shawna Baez was pacing back and forth as she spoke to the rag-tag group of metas standing before her; her boyfriend stood off in a corner, smug as he watched what had started as his small suggestion all coming into light. Bivolo was at her side, having been the first recruit to the little gang.

"I'm not sure. You've only gone over it about a dozen times," Mark Mardon said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The other two men in the group snickered; Shawna shot an irritated look at the lot of them.

"Let's not forget who broke your sorry asses out of prison," she shot back, and the snickering slowly died down. "I have given you a golden chance, and it damn well better work out exactly like I just told you. So, I'll ask again: are you clear on the plan?"

"We're all clear, princess," Jeremey Tell spoke up, rolling his eyes a bit.

"Crystal," Nathan Bliss chimed in, one hand reaching up to adjust the top hat on his head.

"Great," Shawna replied, pleased enough at the response. She turned her eyes to her boyfriend, offering him an almost giddy smile. "It's go-time, baby."

Clay moved from the wall to stand at Shawna's side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Then let's make it count."

 **Important Note:** So, now that Shawna's line-up has been revealed, I'm guessing that there are questions. Like, for example, who they hell are they? Besides Mark Mardon and Bivolo of course. I actually didn't know of the metas myself before doing some research for this portion of the fic. So for anyone who doesn't know, Jeremy Tell is a meta who was introduced on the Arrow. I don't know much of his story, because I don't watch the show, but his meta name is Double Down (courtesy of Cisco) and his power is being able to create playing cards from tattoos on his body that can cut through human flesh easily, and apparently steel. Pretty epic. Nathan Bliss, AKA Mr. Bliss, is from the Flash season 0 comics and has the power to manipulate emotions like joy and pain, and can also cause powerful hallucinations. I thought they both sounded pretty damn awesome, so here they are. Feel free to ask me more or look them up if you need to! I could link you to the pages I got my information from :) Until next time!


	6. Maelstrom

**Author's Note:** So, this chapter was actually really fun for me to write, even though writing the little action/fight scene was a little harder than I thought it would be. I blame it on having to include so many people in it. Haha! Anyways, I really worked hard to get this chapter up so fast. I have a busy schedule coming up for the next few days, so I'm not going to have a lot of time to work on the next chapter; it won't be up nearly as fast, which is why I wanted to get this one out. Anyways, the only **important** thing about this note is really just to say that I changed up Nathan Bliss's backstory a little bit to have it fit. Barry has never faced him in the show, so I had to switch things up a little! But, that's all! Enjoy! Review! ;)

* * *

The second that the screaming started, Barry stiffened, his bloodshot eyes searching for where the noise was coming from. From his current position, he couldn't see what was happening, but he could tell that it was close. Iris, who had clearly heard the commotion as well, met her best friend's eyes with her own pleading ones.

"Barry, don't," she said, already seeing the gears turning in his mind, his heroic instincts automatically kicking in. "Please."

But the terrified screams continued to ring out, and she could already tell what he was about to do by the apologetic look on the speedster's face.

"Iris, I'm sorry," he said, giving her hands a quick squeeze as if to try and reassure her, but she could not be reassured. Especially not as she watched him blow past her in a rush of golden lightning, back up the stairs to the Cortex. Seconds later, he ran past her on his way back out, the blur of red inside the golden lightning signifying that he had changed into his suit. And then he was gone, and Iris was struggling to hold back the panic she felt trying to consume her. It was only moments before Caitlin, Cisco and her father emerged from the same doors Barry had just fled from, their expressions mirroring exactly how she felt.

"Iris, where'd Barry go? What happened?" Caitlin asked, her voice more frantic than Iris was used to hearing it. When she finally found her voice, she did not like the way it cracked when she spoke, but she knew no one would judge her for it. Not now.

"He went to go be a damn hero."

* * *

Barry was, of course, the first one to arrive on the scene, skidding to a stop in the center of the street. He watched all of the people run for safety as he scanned the area for the threat, fighting back the urge to both throw up and pass out right on the spot; he could do both later, once he was sure everyone was safe. His heart pounded in his chest as he saw the tennis ball-sized pieces of hail that littered the street, the broken glass scattered around from where they had broken car and building windows. There was only one person he knew of that had the power to do that.

"Flash! I was so hoping you'd show up!" The booming voice of Mark Mardon confirmed what he already knew. The weather-controlling meta was floating on a storm cloud about twenty feet off the ground, grinning down at the leather-clad speedster with a malicious smile. Barry gritted his teeth as he looked up at the man, unpleasant memories from his last encounter with him flooding back. So he had been one of the metas freed from Iron Heights. Wonderful. Just what he needed right now.

"Leave these people alone, Mardon!" Barry shouted up at him, his voice still coming out scratchier than he would have liked it to. Mardon smiled wider at this, clearly picking up on it. He chuckled.

"So Shawna wasn't kidding. You _are_ sick."

Barry bristled at the words. Shawna? He was in communication with Shawna? The speedster mentally cursed. She must have been the one who had freed him and the other two metas from Iron Heights. Now that he thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense. She could teleport, for God's sake, and had already freed her boyfriend from prison that one time. Not to mention she had clearly hinted that she wasn't done with him the previous day.

"You know, I'm actually getting _really_ tired of everyone pointing that out," Barry replied, trying for his usual dose of sarcasm despite the way his voice sounded, and despite the fact that he really wasn't into it. "Stand down now! I've beaten you twice before and I'll do it again."

Mardon simply chuckled again. "In your condition, Flash?" he asked teasingly, still hovering above him. At least he wasn't chucking hail at helpless citizens anymore. "Besides, I'm pretty confident with my odds. Four against one hardly is hardly an equal ratio."

The small shred of hope Barry had dwindled incredibly, his pale face showing confusion and, admittedly, a hint of fear. "What -?" he started. He didn't finish voicing his question. A sharp pain exploded in his right shoulder, and he felt a scream of his own flying past his lips. He stumbled, nearly falling over. It took a lot of willpower for him to find the strength to straighten and reach behind him, pulling the object out of his shoulder, which agonizingly throbbed and stung. When he looked at it, he thought for a moment that it was his mind playing a trick on him. A playing card? What the hell? He didn't want to turn his back to Mardon, but he turned anyways, and came face-to-face with a man he had only seen once in a mugshot, and suddenly it clicked: this was Double Down, the meta that Oliver had dealt with not so long ago. The meta with the playing card tattoos he could utilize as weapons. Great. So now two metas were accounted for - but Mardon had said four against one. Where were the other two?

It wasn't long before that question was answered, either, and at this point, Barry might have let out a fluent stream of curses, if his voice didn't sound so rough. Another metahuman he knew all too well was closing in from his left side: Bivolo, his shades off and a chilling smile set on his face. And from the right another figure was approaching, and while Barry recognized the man immediately, he was startled by his presence here. Nathan Bliss had been the ringleader of the Central City Circus for over a year before the whole operation had gone downhill, and he had gone bankrupt. The man had been arrested for attempted armed robbery, and Barry had had absolutely no clue that he was a metahuman, let alone locked in the metahuman wing at Iron Heights. He vowed to find out more about that; if he ever made it out of his current situation, that was. From up above, Mardon continued his smug chuckling.

"Yes, I quite like our odds."As soon as the words left his mouth, as if it were some kind of cue, the four villain surrounding Barry surged as one. Thunder rumbled from the cloud Mardon stood upon, and suddenly Barry was ducking as the weather meta swooped at him, trying to dodge the large chunks of hail that were being dropped down without using much of his speed. At the sound of something whistling through the air, Barry sidestepped a card being thrown from Double Down just in time, backing up - right into Bivolo, who landed a well-thrown punch to the speedster's jaw. Barry yelped, using his speed now to run to the opposite side of the street. He stopped there, panting, nauseated and woozy.

For a moment, time seemed to slow as he took in the scene before him, the pure hell that was breaking loose right in front of his eyes. The people who hadn't managed to evacuate before everything had started were cowering behind various objects and buildings, their faces masks of pure terror. He saw one group of citizens physically fighting with each other, anger radiating off of them in waves, and he knew that Bivolo had somehow gotten to them. Distantly, he heard the sounds of police sirens approaching. He saw Bliss, focusing calmly on him from his position, and had just enough time to wonder what on earth his abilities were before time seemed to jump start again. And suddenly he wasn't looking at Bliss but at his own mother, watching him with warmth and love in her eyes, and his breath hitched in his throat. This wasn't right, she was dead. She was dead, she was gone, she was definitely _not_ supposed to be standing there amidst the chaos looking at him like that -

Distracted as he was by the false image of his mother, Barry never saw Mardon coming. The man dropped down from his storm cloud and tackled him, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him startled and gasping for breath on the ground. His shoulder was agonizingly throbbing again at the action, his head pounding, and with the pressure of _something_ on his back he couldn't get enough air in, couldn't breathe right -

The uneven, ragged breaths he was taking triggered one of his Godforsaken bouts of coughing, sending electricity crackling up and down his body as he lay incapacitated on the ground. There was a yelp as Mardon was shocked, and the pressure on Barry's back disappeared, but the poor speedster barely noticed.

Mardon glared down at the vulnerable hero from his new position standing over him. "Pathetic," he spat, sending a kick flying into hero's side. Barry gasped, his eyes foggy. Mardon had the urge to do more, to just finish the speedster off now, but he reigned in his emotions. What fun would it be to just let him off the hook so easily? Besides, the teleporting girl and her boyfriend, despite being highly annoying, had come up with such a tempting game plan.

"Finish it," he snapped at Bliss. "Shawna and that stupid boy toy of hers are waiting."

Barry didn't have time to even interpret the words properly before his world erupted in a pain worse than anything he had ever experienced before, and he mercifully escaped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Iris was not prepared for what she saw when herself and the rest of Team Flash rolled up on the scene in one of the STAR Labs vans. She wasn't sure what she was expecting when they arrived, but it hadn't been this. Even though Barry had only dashed out about ten minutes prior, the fight that had apparently occurred was already clearly over. Broken glass littered the sidewalks and street, along with quite sizeable pieces of hail. Iris swallowed a lump in her throat; she didn't want to think about what that meant. Multiple police cars surrounded the area, and a few officers she recognized were putting up police tape. Others talked to visibly distressed witnesses, and she even saw two doing their best to restrain a small group of people who seemed quite angry. She didn't really want to think about what that meant, either. The worst thing about the scene, however, was that there was no sight of the familiar red-clad figure that should have been easy to spot amidst everything else.

Barry wasn't there.

She was out of the van as soon as it came to a stop, striding towards the cordoned off area with purpose, until she heard her name being called and felt a hand grab her arm, holding her back.

"Iris," her father repeated, and she turned around to face him, seeing Cisco and Caitlin stepping out of the van as well; they all looked just as worried as she felt. "Baby, they're not gonna let you through."

"Dad, I need -" she started, but he shook his head.

"I know," he said. "Let me talk to them. I'll get answers, Iris, I promise." Iris didn't look happy. She wanted to march right through the bright yellow tape, use her honed journalism skills to question and interrogate and figure out _exactly_ what the hell had just gone down. Where the Flash - where _Barry_ was. But as she saw the mass of other reporters swarming the scene, saw the way the police force was keeping them back, she knew her dad was right. Even being his daughter wasn't going to gain her access. She took a shaky breath and nodded; Joe gave her hand a squeeze. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder: Caitlin, trying to give her some semblance of comfort even when Iris knew she was just as panicked as she was.

"I'll get answers," he repeated. "We're gonna find Barry." He nodded at the three of them before walking towards the scene. But Iris wasn't quite sure who he was trying to convince: them, or himself.

* * *

"West!"

As Joe let himself past the police line, he was almost immediately spotted by Captain Singh, who looked surprised but also grateful to see the detective there; after all, Joe was sure the force could use any man available at this point. He strode purposefully over to his boss.

"I thought you were with Allen. Is he alright? Well enough to get down here and maybe analyze some of the evidence? We could really use him," the captain admitted. Joe sucked in a shaky breath at the mention of his son, and it didn't escape Singh's notice.

"Everything alright, Joe?" he asked.

After a moment, Joe was able to put on a tight smile that looked more like a grimace and nodded. "Fine, Captain," he said. "But, ah, no. Barry's still sick, he won't be able to make it down here."

Singh didn't quite look like he bought that everything was fine, but now was no time to push; they had quite the mess to deal with.

"A damn shame," he muttered. "But we really need you, Joe."

"What happened here?" The detective asked urgently. "Where's the Flash?" Singh grimaced at the question.

"According to witnesses, Mark Mardon showed up, started decimating the place," he said. "He was broken out of prison last night, along with Jeremy Tell and Nathan Bliss, both metas. "The Flash showed up to stop him, but he wasn't quite as handy as he usually is, apparently. Witnesses said something seemed off about him. And then Tell, Bliss, and Bivolo showed up…" Singh trailed off.

"And?" Joe prompted, his heart beating faster in his chest.

"And he took quite a beating, from what we've heard," Singh replied, grimacing still. "And they took him, Joe. They just - took the Flash. Everyone's pretty spooked about it. We don't know what their next move will be."

For a moment, Joe stood frozen, not wanting to believe the words that had just come out his boss's mouth. " _They took him, Joe,"_ he had said. " _They just - took the Flash."_ And then he was moving, walking away from the scene, from the baffled captain.

"Joe!" he called out. "Joe, we need you on this!"

But Joe didn't stop, not until he was out of the crime scene once again, back to his daughter and Cisco and Caitlin, who were all waiting anxiously.

"We have a problem."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope this chapter was satisfying enough with the action/drama. There is more to come, too ;) Until next time!


	7. Bad Ideas

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! This chapter is a little shorter than my previous ones, but since I wanted it to end where it did, there wasn't much opportunity to make it any longer. So, sorry it's short by a few hundred words. I hope the cliffhanger is worth it ;) Enjoy!

* * *

"Cisco, would you _please_ make that thing shut up?"

The irritated voice belonged to Iris West. Along with Cisco, Caitlin, and her father, she was gathered around one of the computer screens in the Cortex of STAR Labs. For the past hour or so, the small group had been doing whatever they could to try and locate their missing speedster, looking through feeds from several different security cameras to see if they could trace the path the rogue metas had taken after snatching him. It was hard to focus, however, with the crime alert blaring in the background. It wasn't the first time it had been set off, either; the damn thing had blasted at least four times since they had gotten back, a grim sound warning them that various cocky criminals had decided to take advantage of the quite busy police force after the chaos that had happened with the Flash being abducted. The city's unofficial protector disappearing was apparently enough to bring them crawling out of the woodwork, acting while they could. And every time it went off, it only made Iris's already terrible mood dampen more; at this rate, Central City would quickly be going off the rails.

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it," Cisco grumbled, getting up from his seat once again to silence the alarm. Iris turned her attention back to the monitor as he did so, grimacing; Caitlin was playing one of the security camera footages over again, and she was not keen on seeing Barry getting beat up again for the umpteenth time that hour. It was disturbing to watch; seeing it multiple times from various different angles had not made her desensitised to the scene in the slightest.

"Any luck with his tracker?" she asked, turning her head away from the screen to look at Cisco as he came to sit back down. The alarm had been shut off, and it made the space rather quiet again. Caitlin spared a quick look at one of the other screens, then shook her head with a frown.

"No, it's still offline," she answered, somewhat distracted as she went back to watching the monitor in front of her. "It must have been damaged in the fight. I can't think of any other reason why it wouldn't be working."

"Do you think they took it off the suit?" Joe asked, massaging his temples.

"They didn't know it was there. And even if they did, there's no way they'd be able to find it," Cisco input, running a hand through his long hair frustratedly. "Trust me. I hid that sucker well."

Iris let out a sigh. "Well, this isn't working," she pointed out, reaching out a hand to pause the surveillance video that Caitlin's eyes were still glued to. The other girl made a noise of protest, but Iris just simply shook her head. "We've been over these at least a dozen times," she said. "And we still haven't found anything. There's got to be a better way than this to find Barry."

"Well, if you've got anything, we're open for suggestions," the doctor mumbled, running a hand tiredly over her face. She probably had it the worst out of all of them currently, trying to work through all of this running on zero sleep. But they all wanted the speedster back; they couldn't imagine what was happening to him, wherever he was. However, their spirits were rather low after over an hour of looking and finding practically nothing that pointed to where he may be. The only reassurance they had was the screen displaying his vitals pulled up on yet another monitor. While they weren't at their highest considering his current illness and the fight he had put himself through, they at least showed that nothing else terrible seemed to have happened to him.

Yet.

Iris sucked in a deep breath as a thought suddenly occurred to her.

"I actually have a really terrible idea," she announced, and suddenly all focus was entirely on her, three sets of eyes watching her anxiously.

"Which would be?" Joe prompted, looking at his daughter with both hope and wariness.

"Snart," she said finally, holding their gazes. All three of the other members of Team Flash seemed surprised to hear the name, and Iris couldn't really blame them; he was probably the last person on their minds right now.

"...what about him?" Caitlin asked slowly, not quite following what Iris was suggesting. Or perhaps she had an inkling, and didn't quite want to fully connect the dots.

"He owes us, right? Since we helped save Lisa?" There was silence for a moment.

"Mmmh...I don't know," Cisco replied, looking unsure. "I mean, he warned Barry at Christmas last year that Mardon and Jesse were out to get him. Knowing him, he probably counts that as his repayment."

"On top of that, no one knows where he is. And I doubt he'd risk his own safety for the sake of Barry, even if he did owe us," Caitlin pointed out gently.

Iris let out a huff. "Yet, he's still probably our best chance," she pointed out in return. "If anyone could somehow get in contact with those metas, it'd be him and you know it. Not to mention that Shawna and Mardon sort of owe _him_ ; he kept them from being transported to Oliver's prison. And Cisco, don't you have Lisa's phone number?"

Cisco's cheeks reddened a bit, but he quickly shared a look with both Joe and Caitlin; Iris, unsurprisingly, did have a valid point. Even if it wasn't the best idea out there, it was the _only_ one out there, besides to keep pouring over the surveillance videos. And Iris was right about that, too; it was not getting them anywhere. This truly did seem to be their best option.

"...I guess it's worth a shot," Joe said finally, though still understandably wary.

Cisco shook his head, a look on his face as if he were truly wondering what the hell their lives had come to.

"We're all seriously screwed up," he said as he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket.

No one opened their mouths to argue with him.

* * *

As Barry started to slowly wake, the first thing he was aware of was the immense discomfort.

His head and jaw were pounding, his shoulder pulsing. He felt far too hot. His head felt stuffed with cotton, his throat dry and scratchy, nausea lingering under the surface. The second thing he was aware of was that he couldn't move. He struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, and wouldn't budge right away. It seemed to take agonizingly long before he could even get them to twitch. By that point, he was awake enough for muted voices to start to reach his ears. Everything was so muddled, however, that it was as if he were hearing them from underwater. He couldn't comprehend anything that was being said, so he instead focused on trying to pry his eyes open again. He let out a small groan at the effort as they started to flutter. And then one voice, louder than it had been moments ago, rang out much clearer than before.

"He's coming to." The voice sounded pleased, but for whatever reason it did not sit well with the speedster. "Wakey wakey, Flash."

A stinging pain suddenly sprang up on the right side of his face, and Barry's eyes finally flew open with the realization that he had been slapped, none too lightly. He blinked slowly, groggily, as his eyes tried to focus, and he let out another groan. What the hell was going on? What had happened? It took another bleary moment of hard blinking before the scene before him came into focus.

And he found himself staring into the face of the grinning Mark Mardon.

If Barry hadn't felt so drained, he might have flinched at the sudden and unexpected proximity. As things were presently, her barely had enough energy to keep his eyes open and take in his surroundings, which were unfamiliar. He was in a dimly lit, large building of some sorts - perhaps a warehouse. Why were villains always able to find abandoned warehouses? He could see now that he was definitely chained to the wall, and aside from Mardon, there were five other figures present, and their identities slowly rattled off in his brain: Shawna Baez, Clay Parker, Roy Bivolo, Jeremy Tell and Nathan Bliss. For a moment, Barry was thoroughly confused.

As some of the fog cleared from his mind, however, he found the events that had lead to this moment slowly coming back to him. The screaming, how he had run to investigate. How he had been very stupid to do so, because he had gotten his ass handed to him and apparently been kidnapped. Just his luck.

"Good to see you back, Flash. You were napping for quite a long time. I do hope that you're alright," Mardon drawled, his voice awash with mock sympathy and an underlying malice that made Barry's skin crawl.

"What do you all want?" Barry muttered, his voice just as hoarse as it had been earlier, if not more so. He was in no mood to play guessing games with these psychos; clearly they wanted him for a reason, and he wanted to know what it was.

"You took our freedom." The voice was Shawna's this time, the girl stepping up from the back of the group. "You took Central City from us, when it's just as much ours as it is yours," she said forcefully.

Barry scrunched his eyes shut momentarily in tired, weak frustration.

"I didn't even put half of you away," the speedster said slowly. "You, Bivolo and Mardon, sure. Because you were using your powers to commit crimes. And you've been free for months, since the Snart incident."

Shawna seemed to falter a bit at his protestation, but Clay put a hand on her shoulder, as if trying to assure her that she was right. Bivolo scowled.

"Living the life. Keeping a low profile, trying not to show your face. Unable to use your powers unless you want to get caught and thrown back in your little meta jail."

"What a tragedy," Barry replied with as much sarcasm as he could muster at the moment, which wasn't much. "And the rest of you?" he questioned irritably.

"I was offered an out from prison," Bliss piped up cheerfully from the corner.

"You're friends with that pest the Green Arrow. That's enough for me," Tell spat. Barry didn't need an answer from Clay; clearly he was in this with his girlfriend, egging her on.

"Enough chit-chat," Mardon snapped at them all. He seemed to have taken control rather fast, which didn't appear to sit well with Shawna. Her eyes narrowed at the man, and she looked like she might say something, but decided against it. For now, at least.

"We don't need to tell you anything," the weather-controlling meta continued. "All you need to know is that you're going to regret deciding to be the hero after we're done with you, Flash."

Barry's stomach did a backflip.

"Shawna, you wanted the honor?" Mardon asked moments later, his voice thick with a false respect. Shawna scowled a bit but nodded, walking towards him with purpose.

Barry didn't know what she wanted the honor of, what she was about to do, but the large list of what it might be was quite unsettling. His heartbeat picked up, thumping almost painfully against his chest. He struggled weakly against the chains holding him, but knew that it was no use. Even if he could muster up the energy to phase out of them, he wouldn't be going anywhere; he was far outnumbered, and it had already been proven that, at least currently, he was no match for the group. Then Shawna was directly in front of him, looking down at him not with malice but, strangely, curiosity and a smug smile.

"I've always wanted to know what you looked like under that mask," she said.

Barry could only watch with a horrified expression as she reached out a hand to tug down his cowl.

 **Author's Note:** Seems like a wonderful place to leave you all hanging ;) Leave a review, let me know what you think!


	8. Agony

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Sorry about the week long wait. I always try to get it up before a week passes, but I was quite busy. I hope the wait was worth it! Enjoy, and review if you can :) I really love reading them!

* * *

"Well, I have no idea who the hell he is. I thought that would be more fulfilling. It was kind of anticlimactic."

The voice belonged to Shawna, who had turned her head back to look at her team after tugging off Barry's cowl, leaving his face exposed for all of them to see. If the speedster didn't feel so helpless at the moment, he might have uttered a sarcastic response. Of course they didn't know who the hell he was; he was only a CSI, after all. It wasn't like their paths had crossed before outside of him being the Flash. But Barry still didn't like this; not at all. Now that they knew what he looked like, it would be far too easy of a job to figure out his identity, to go after his friends and family. And that to him was worse than being stuck here at their mercy.

"Doesn't matter." This time it was Mardon speaking, crouching down so that he was level with Barry, far too close for the hero's liking. "He's a thorn in our side, and that's all that really counts. Baby-face here is still gonna pay, and this damn city along with him."

Barry's eyes narrowed at the man. He wanted to lunge at him, to knock the triumphant look off of his face, but he couldn't summon the energy, nor would he get very far in his chains. He settled for the next best thing as his nose twitched, and he let out a sneeze right in the meta's face. The chains binding him went taut as he speedily pitched forward as far as the restraints would allow, then practically bungeed him backwards into the wall forcefully. He sniffed, blinking up at Mardon as the man swiped a hand over his face.

"Why you little -" the weather meta cut himself off with a scowl, sending a well-aimed, well-powered kick to Barry's abdomen. Barry in turn let out an unbidden yelp of pain, and suddenly bile was rising in his throat, and he turned his head to the side, retching, the contents of his stomach emptied out on the floor next to him.

"There's worse than that coming," he sneered as Barry ran the back of his gloved hand over his mouth. The speedster suddenly looked a lot more tired than he had moments ago, his expression sullen as the extent of his situation seemed to weigh heavily down on him.

"Shawna." Mardon turned away from Barry, his eyes flitting to the teleporting girl. Barry's eyes slowly tracked over to her as well, and he was vaguely surprised to find her already looking at him with an almost pitying gaze. She quickly turned her attention to her cohort, however, at the sound of her name, raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Where are the tools?"

* * *

"I cannot believe you made me do that."

Cisco's face was reddened once again as he hung up his cellphone and placed it back in his pocket, running a hand through his hair. He had just finished talking to Lisa, and it had been fairly awkward. For him, at least; he wasn't sure there was anything that could make that girl feel awkward.

"It was for Barry," Iris chided, arms crossed. "What did she say?"

"That Snart was off doing some 'business,' whatever that means; I really don't want to know. That he'd be back soon, and she'd talk to him. But she couldn't guarantee anything. You know he's stubborn."

Caitlin frowned at that, eyeing the computer monitors they had just been using to look at footage wistfully. "Maybe we should just keep combing through -"

"Caitlin." Iris cut her off, shaking her head. "It won't help, and you know it. There's no possible way we could have missed anything on them, not with all four of us looking," she said sadly. Joe placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, attempting to offer her a sliver of comfort despite the fact that he felt just as worried and nervous as the rest of them did.

The doctor let out a sigh. "I know," she said finally, resignedly. "It's just -"

She didn't get to finish, this time cut off by the text tone of Cisco's phone ringing out from the pocket of his jeans. They all looked at the engineer expectantly as he pulled it back out, all faces serious as he looked at the text on the screen.

"It's Lisa," he said after a moment, seeming a bit surprised. "Snart - he said he'll talk with us. The dock, one hour, behind the old boat house."

"One hour?" Iris sounded antsy. "Barry's already been gone for over an hour. The longer we wait…"

The others shifted uncomfortably, and it was Joe to speak up. "Baby, one hour is pretty good, considering we're dealing with Snart," he said. "There was no guarantee this would even happen at all. We're in better shape than we were before." Iris let out a long breath, nodding.

"I know," she said. "I'm just - I'm worried, dad. I just want him back."

"We all do, Iris," Caitlin said softly. "We're going to find him."

"He'll be fine," Cisco added helpfully. "I mean, he's Barry - he's always fine."

The universe seemed determined to prove him wrong as, at that moment, the monitor displaying Barry's vitals began to let out a series of shrill warning beeps.

* * *

"Agh!" Barry grunted in pain, his breathing heavy and rapid as the steel pipe once again made contact with his body, the suit doing little to protect him from the blows. His heart was racing, his entire body aching. He had started shaking as well, though he couldn't quite tell at this point if it from the chill in the warehouse, the pain, his phasing powers acting up or, possibly, all three. He didn't care, either.

"You don't need to do this," Barry pleaded through gritted teeth. Yes, he had resorted to trying to reason with his enemies. A useless move, he was sure, but what else could he do at this point? "Please."

"What's the matter, Flash? Can't take it? Some hero." Mardon was grinning down at him from his right side, brandishing the pipe still. From his left, Tell chuckled, pulling a card from off his body and flinging it with scarily accurate precision. It grazed across Barry's cheek, leaving a bleeding line and sticking itself in the wall next to his head; the speedster winced, feeling the warm blood start to drip down the side of his face.

"He's not so impressive now, is he?" The voice was Clay this time, walking up to stand in the middle of the two metas flanking him. He was twirling a knife expertly between his fingers, and Barry's stomach lurched, his eyes tracking the movement of the weapon nervously. He licked his dry lips.

"Clay -" Barry started, but was interrupted by his own yell of pain as the only non-meta suddenly stopped twirling his knife and through it, the blade lodging itself all the way up to the hilt in Barry's shoulder. The hero's eyes lost focus momentarily, seeming to glass over as he blinked slowly. It was a few moments before he was able to look at the villains in front of him again.

"My friends are going to find me," he hissed. He really wished that the words sounded even vaguely threatening, but his voice was still hoarse, and cracked slightly from the pain he was still experiencing.

"Mmmh, doubtful," Mardon replied, grinning. He raised his pipe again (which in Barry's opinion he seemed to be enjoying far too much, considering he had powers), and this time aimed it at the speedster's head. Barry both felt the object as it made contact and heard it, a sickening crack and then blinding pain. He was sitting but he still felt himself double over, his head dropping, his vision blurring and black and red dots flickering at the edge of his line of sight.

"That's enough!" a voice rang out, but Barry could barely hear it with the ringing that had started up in his ears, and the way it seemed to be reaching him from a long distance. He probably had a concussion, he thought sluggishly.

"You wanted this," he heard a voice protest, the words muffled. "This was your idea, you bitch. You don't want to finish what you started?"

"I don't want you to _kill_ him," the original voice seethed. "So that's _enough._ "

"I didn't get a go at him yet." A third voice, and then a snort.

"What are you gonna do, Bivolo? Angry him to death?"

"We're not _killing_ him." The girl, exasperated.

"Are you sure? I could do it, easily." A fourth voice.

"Bliss, _shut up_."

"Shawna, babe, cool it. Just - go get the video camera, alright?"

A pause, and then. "Fine. But he damn well better still be breathing when I come back."

* * *

Iris shivered slightly as a breeze blew past, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood on the dock, looking absently out over the water. Snart wasn't supposed to arrive at the specified location for another twenty minutes, but Team Flash had decided to get there early. It was better than staying locked up in the lab doing nothing. At least here they could feel productive again, waiting for the only real hope they had at the moment. Snart wasn't exactly the best person to place their faith in, but it was something. And something was better than nothing. After the incident with Barry's vitals spiking, they had all been far more on edge than they had previously been, which was saying a lot. But he wasn't dead. Iris clung on to that fact as she stood there waiting. He was in trouble; he was hurt, and sick, and he needed them. But he was _not_ dead. She planned on keeping it that way.

After another few moments observing her wavering reflection in the water, Iris turned around so that she could see the others again, who all seemed just as antsy as she felt standing there. She bit at her lip, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time again.

Eighteen minutes to go now.

The time seemed to be passing far too slow for her liking. She knew her dad was right, that an hour was not bad of a wait at all for Snart. And it was so close now to when he was supposed to be here, but yet it still seemed so far. It was still nerve-wracking. What if he didn't show? What if he did show, only to not help them? What if - no. Iris forced herself to break away from those thoughts, taking a deep breath. She couldn't afford to go down that road. If Snart hadn't planned on helping them, why would he agree to meet them? He had to help. Iris would _make_ him help, no matter what she had to do. Barry Allen was damn well going to be gotten back in one piece, alive.

"Lisa definitely said to meet him here, right?" she asked, addressing Cisco, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the small group.

Cisco nodded. "Positive," he said, though pulled his own phone out to check the text message again, just to be safe. They couldn't afford to get anything wrong. Not now. Iris tapped her foot nervously against the hard wood of the dock, catching a glimpse of Cisco's phone before the screen went dark again.

Seventeen minutes. God, this was _agonizing._ Cisco shot her a half-hearted sliver of a smile.

"Deep breaths," he told her. "He'll be here, I'm sure of it. Everything's going to be fine."

That was Cisco, ever the optimist. Iris didn't think it was help, but she did it anyways closing her eyes momentarily. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath -

She was startled out of the steady rhythm by an alarm going off, and for a moment she was back in STAR Labs, hearing the earsplitting screech of the screen monitoring Barry's vitals again -

But no, this was Cisco's phone going off, and the noise had clearly startled everyone else out of their own thoughts as well. She found herself staring over at Cisco along with Caitlin and her father as the engineer fumbled with the phone in his hand, unlocking it to see what was causing the noise. His eyebrows furrowed, and Iris frowned.

"What is it?" she asked. "Cisco, what is that?"

"Breaking news alert," he said as he opened his phone. "It doesn't say what about though, so I -"

Cisco cut himself off, his breath hitching in his throat as he looked at the screen. That was all it took for the remaining three members of Team Flash to scramble over to his side, hovering closely and looking over his shoulders in order to view the small screen as well. Iris nearly choked as she saw a familiar face filling up the space. For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a voice from behind the camera, the person filming.

"Are you sure this is broadcasting?" the voice asked, the camera shaking for a moment before coming back into focus.

"Yes, I'm sure. This was the one useful thing I learned from that Trickster pest. Everyone in the city with internet access is seeing this right now."

That voice belonged to none other than Mark Mardon, and he was grinning something awful as he looked into the camera.

"People of Central City," he announced, his voice smug and triumphant. "We are taking over." There was a pause, and then the camera panned, and Iris's heart pounded painfully in her chest as she saw what it was now showing. There were the other metahumans that Captain Singh had told her father were involved in the Flash's abduction. But the part that was making her heart ache wasn't them; it was Barry, pale and still, clad in his familiar red suit but minus the cowl, beaten and only appearing half-conscious. Chained to a wall. Exposed for all to see.

"And your precious Flash can't help you now."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** That's it for this chapter! Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger. Until next time ;)


	9. Help Wanted

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! I'm happy with myself that I managed to get this up before a week passed lol, that was my goal! **Anyways, PSA:** Oliver and Felicity come into play in this chapter. However, I do not watch Arrow. So I everything I know about their characters and lives comes from the episodes they crossed over with the Flash, and anything I look up. Also from the amazing TrueLoveExists02 who I constantly go back and forth with, so thanks again for that! But I thought it would be fitting since Double Down is from Arrow, and a reviewer suggested bringing them in also so I decided to go with it! If anything is wrong or seems off about the information I give, please let me know!

* * *

The warehouse that was currently housing the triumphant team of metahumans was awash with smiles and high spirits, as opposed to the fighting that had been occurring before the live broadcast that had just been sent out to the entirety of Central City.

"I can't believe you actually got that to work," Clay Parker was saying with a chuckle, placing the video camera he had been holding down on one of the many old crates lying around.

"I told you, that was the one good thing that came out of that idiotic Trickster," Mark Mardon replied with a chuckle of his own, crossing his arms and looking down at Barry, who still hadn't moved. "Nice of you to play dead, Flash. Thanks for your cooperation," he added with amusement, nudging the battered speedster with his boot. Barry let out a small groan, but otherwise said nothing, his eyes fluttering to a close and his head drooping farther down to his chest. Mardon looked temptingly at the steel pipe he had left on the floor, eyeing it and the speedster as if considering finishing the job that had been started.

"Don't you dare," Shawna said sternly, as if guessing his thought process. The weather meta turned to glare at her, the happy mood suddenly seeming to break.

"Your leadership is questionable," he said, nudging Barry's limp form with his boot one more time. This time he didn't make a noise nor move, clearly dead to the world. "What kind of a plan is this? You offer us revenge on the Flash and then try to protect him?"

"I'm not - I'm not _protecting_ him," Shawna spluttered. "The plan was never to kill him, Mardon. And revenge on him was not the only reason I broke you out of jail. It was to gain control over Central City."

"Which, you know, would be a lot easier with him completely out of the way. Permanently," Tell said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as he cast a quick glance at the unconscious hero. "It would be so easy. I could just use a card right now to slice his -"

"Oh my God! We are not killing him! Get it through your thick skulls!" Shawna yelled, throwing her hands up in the air in a frustrated gesture. All of the men in the room eyed her; even Clay, she noticed, was looking at her as if she were slightly nuts. Her eyes narrowed.

"He's down for the count," she continued, gesturing at Barry. "Let's just leave him. No point in threatening a city if we're not actually going to carry through with the damn threat," she said with a pointed look at Mardon, who glowered.

"You want to just leave him here, unguarded?" he asked. "That's probably the _stupidest_ -"

"Look at him!" Shawna interrupted exasperatedly. "There is no way he's getting out of here. He's sick and injured, and he's not even conscious."

"For now," Mardon replied, looking down at the speedster again as well. He was quiet for only a moment before coming back with, "One guard. There needs to be at least one person here with him."

Shawna let out a huff, but didn't argue. She supposed she had to pick her battles, and this was not something she was going to challenge Mardon on. Though she was starting to regret her choice of breaking him out of Iron Heights. Among other things. No one, however, seemed intent on staying behind to watch their captive, wanting to be where the action was.

"Bliss," she spoke out, volunteering the man. "You stay, keep an eye on him." Said meta did not look happy to be singled out, his eyebrows furrowing.

"But -"

Shawna shook her head. "You'll have plenty of opportunities to wreak havoc," she told him. "Just - do this for now."

Bliss let out a huff of his own. "Fine," he grumbled, glaring down at Barry.

Shawna gave a nod of approval. "Let's go, boys," she said. Mardon, Tell, Bivolo and Clay were all too happy to get moving, walking towards the warehouse's only point of exit and entry. Shawna followed behind them out of the building, though not before casting a sidelong, almost apologetic look at the man chained to the wall as she left.

* * *

Iris felt like her heart was trying to break out her chest. It was pumping so hard she could hear the blood rushing in her ears, drowning out practically everything else. Not that anyone else was talking; they all seemed just as shocked as she was. Everything was dead-quiet except for the occasional lapping of the water against the dock, a steadiness in a world that seemed far too chaotic and unpredictable and _wrong_ at the moment. If it hadn't been for Joe's phone going off, startling them all out of their own thoughts, they might have stayed like that.

Slowly, as if moving through tar, the detective reached into his jacket pocket to pull out his ringing cell. He stared almost blankly at the screen.

"It's...Captain Singh," he said slowly, and hit ignore without so much as a second thought. There could only be one thing he would possibly be calling about after what had just happened, and he was in no place to talk to his boss about it yet. He didn't even want to accept it.

"Barry...oh, God, Barry…" Caitlin said after a moment, her eyes wide, her arms wrapped around herself as if for some comfort, even though it clearly would not help.

"You all look like someone just died. Did someone just die?"

At the sound of the new, snarky voice, four heads suddenly whipped around, four pairs of eyes landing on a figure dressed in a familiar blue parka. There stood none other than Leonard Snart, the man that, just minutes ago, they had anxiously been waiting for. Now his presence seemed almost like an intrusion, taking them by surprise in a moment of utter shock and fear. The thief raised an eyebrow at their silence, checking the watch on his wrist as if time was the problem.

"Or is this because I'm early?" he drawled, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly. "We don't have to do this, of course. Although I _did_ take my valuable time to be here."

"No - no, that's not it. I - we - thank you for being here, Snart," Iris said, stumbling over her words in a way she never did. If his demeanor bothered her, she didn't let it show; there were more important things to worry about at the moment. "There's just - there's been a new development."

"In what, exactly?" Snart asked, eyebrow still cocked, arms moving to cross over his chest as he took in the rather depressed bunch of people gathered before him. "Lisa didn't give me many details. Just that you lot wanted to talk, something about Allen. I do hope that it's important."

"Barry's been kidnapped," Cisco blurted when Iris seemed unable, or at least unwilling to say the words. "By multiple metas. He's being held hostage. And we…" He took a deep breath. "We need your help, Snart." It took a lot for Cisco to admit this to the man who had held both him and his brother hostage, but they were at the end of their rope.

Even if only momentarily, something seemed to shift in Snart's expression at Cisco's explanation; it wasn't quite identifiable, but definitely there before his cold mask fell back into place.

"You expect _me_ to do something about this, do you?" Snart asked. "Barry's a big boy. I'm sure he can handle himself."

"But he can't this time," Caitlin interjected. "He's - well, he's sick," she said. "His powers are on the fritz, and he's not - he's not at full strength. Not by a longshot."

"And this 'new development' future Mrs. Allen over here mentioned?" he asked, gesturing to Iris vaguely. If circumstances were different, Iris might have flushed, or smacked the villain, or both.

"Guess you didn't check your phone on the way over here. Live broadcast," Joe said. "They...exposed him. They exposed Barry, his identity. Everyone...everyone in the city knows he's the Flash."

Snart was quiet for only a moment before replying. "Huh. That certainly is a development," he said thoughtfully. "I suppose that makes our deal null and void, then."

The members of Team Flash chose not to comment on that.

Iris sucked in a breath and let it out in a huff. Having Cold here was her idea, and so far it wasn't getting them anywhere. And they _definitely_ needed it to go somewhere, for Barry's sake.

"Will you help us or not?" she asked, her voice hostile, her eyes narrowed. "You do kind of owe us, you know. For saving your sister's life."

The corners of Snart's mouth turned upwards again at the tone of her voice, amusedly.

"You're a feisty one, eh? I was almost certain that I paid off that debt by giving you a little heads up last Christmas. Am I mistaken?"

"Oh, for the love of God. Are you going to help us or not?" Joe cut in; he, nor any of the others, liked the games the thief was playing; they did not have time for this. Snart rolled his eyes skyward.

"Pushy. I see you all have no patience," he chided. He paused for a moment before continuing, as if debating his options. "I'll help," he said finally. "Despite our differences, I would hate to see any terrible fate befall Mr. Allen. Of course you realize, he will owe me after whatever this little rescue mission of yours is done with."

Iris's gut clenched. She hated the idea of Barry owing Snart anymore favors, but it was the lesser of two evils. Barry owing a villain was better than him being held hostage and tortured by others.

"We're well-aware," she said.

Snart looked pleased. "Good," he said. "Then let's talk strategy. What exactly do you have in mind?"

* * *

"None of them are picking up."

"Try again."

Oliver was pacing back and forth in the Arrowcave, Felicity sitting at one of the rows of computer monitors; there was a cellphone in her hand and a frown on her face. After intercepting the live broadcast from Central City, she had immediately gone to show Oliver, and then tried calling everyone on Team Flash, the obvious exception being Barry. But not one of them was picking up, and she had no idea why.

"Oliver -"

"Just try again," he snapped.

Biting at her lip, the blonde woman did as she was told and started redialing the most recent number she had tried.

 _Hey, you've reached Iris! I can't come to the phone right now, but -_

Felicity hung up, cutting the message short. She repeated the process, trying Cisco, Joe, and Caitlin again as well, only to get the same disheartening results. Voicemails all around.

"Nothing," she informed him as he continued to pace. "They're not answering."

Oliver ran a hand through his hair. "Dammit," he said frustratedly, and quickly started walking towards the other end of the room. Felicity quickly stood from her seat, putting her phone down on the desk and watching him, eyebrows furrowed.

"Oliver, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to Central City," he announced as he went to open the glass case that held his suit.

"I'm coming with you," she said firmly; Oliver paused in his mission, whirling around to face her.

"Felicity -" This time it was her who cut him off.

"Nope," she said. "Don't even try to pull that crap, Oliver. You're not convincing me to stay here."

"Someone needs to be here to watch over Starling."

"Then Dig can stay. I'll tell him we're leaving. I want to help, Oliver. And you know you could use me."

Oliver ran a hand over his face, letting out a frustrated grunt.

"Fine," he said, knowing that there was no way the stubborn blonde was going to relent on the subject. "Then go find Dig. I need to get ready."

Felicity gave a brief nod before exiting the Arrowcave quickly, her high heels methodically clacking against the floor.

They had a friend to save.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Captain Cold finally showed up! And Oliver and Felicity to the rescue? Will be fun to write them interacting with Snart! Well, as always, until next time! :)


	10. Cold Encounters

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, here's chapter 10! This story is moving right along, and I hope everyone is liking where it's going! Enjoy! Please review if you can!

* * *

"This sounds like a rather risky operation. You realize that while they do owe me, they will be hardpressed to accept me at this point? Especially with that fool Mardon there. I already turned down his offer to hunt the Flash last Christmas."

Team Flash, along with Snart, were back in the familiar Cortex at STAR Labs. After Snart had agreed to help them, they had figured that STAR was the best place to go over their gameplan. They would have less of a chance of interruption, and they could monitor Barry's vitals, which were still rather concerningly low. Though it had been somewhat of a hassle to get back, what with having to sneak in the criminal _and_ making sure no one they knew, specifically from the police force, caught sight of them. They didn't have time to deal with the questions they were sure to have now that Barry's secret identity was out in the open.

"We know," Iris was the first one to say in response to Snart. She had somewhat recovered from the events of earlier, at least enough to not stumble over her words. She presented herself strongly, as if her world wasn't crumbling, and doing so more and more the longer that Barry was left in the hands of those awful metas. "But this is our best option right now. If you can infiltrate their group, there's bound to be some way you can get him out of there. And of course we'd be right there waiting."

"And how exactly do you want me to find their little lair?" Snart continued. "They didn't exactly advertise that bit of information.

"The way we see it, they've already...done their worst to Barry. For now, at least. They wouldn't have broadcast bragging about it otherwise. We think they have something else planned, that this morning was just a distraction. And when they show up...that's when you'd make your move," Caitlin explained.

It was a big what-if, and they all knew it, but it did make sense. For once, they were all waiting hopefully for the crime alert to go off, hoping it would signal the move of the rogues. Then they could make _their_ move.

Snart raised an eyebrow. "That's your big plan? To wait here until they all make a big scene? Didn't take much time to think about this, did you?"

"And I suppose you have something better, then?" Iris snapped at the man, glaring. "We already spent over an hour trying to locate him and ended up with nothing. This is our best shot right now."

Snart put his hands up in mock defense, the corners of his mouth upturning in that annoying way of his; a smug kind of amusement. Iris hated it.

"Alright, alright," he said. "We'll wait. But this better not take all day."

"It won't," Iris said firmly, but she honestly didn't feel quite as confident as she sounded, and she knew that her father and friends had the same anxiety over the situation. They truly had no way of knowing when the rogues would make their move. They could assume, but there was no way of knowing for sure. Iris closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She felt her father place a hand on her shoulder and squeeze gently in a comforting gesture, and some of the tension left her body, though not much.

Snart rolled his eyes as he looked around at the four people before him. "Chill," the thief said, amusing himself slightly at the pun. "Barry will be fine." With that, he got up, heading for the doorway, much to the dismay of Team Flash.

"Where are you going?" Joe demanded, everyone else tensing; Snart rolled his eyes again.

"The bathroom," he deadpanned. "Natural bodily functions still apply even when the Flash isn't here." And then he walked out of the Cortex, leaving them by themselves in a bit of a stunned silence.

"He better come back," Cisco grumbled irritably, something he never thought he would say. Caitlin nervously wrung her hands together.

"He won't go back on his word," Iris said, voice still firm. Despite her dislike of the man, this at least she was sure of. He had said he would help, and she did believe him. But waiting for their time to strike would be hard. Every passing second meant more time Barry spent trapped with those monsters without the help that he needed, and was probably desperately waiting for from them.

The room seemed almost too silent after that, the four people still left in it lost in their own thoughts and concerns, worrying that talking about it would only make the situation seem worse. They all kept glancing at Barry's vitals, as well as the monitor that would alert them to any crime, but it stayed as still and silent as them.

Iris was finally considering breaking the uncomfortable silence when something else happened to do it for them. A loud banging sound came from downstairs, one of the floors below them, and suddenly everybody was on their feet, eyes wide and hearts thumping. Joe immediately drew his gun.

"Someone's in the building," Cisco said, stating the obvious.

"It might just be Snart," Caitlin said, though her voice sounded unsure, and she quickly moved to take a look at the security cameras, only to see that each and every one of them displayed only static. Okay, so probably not Snart. Not good.

Joe inched slowly towards the door of the Cortex that lead out to the other areas of the building, his gun pointed steadily forward. Cisco, Caitlin and Iris crept behind him with bated breath, listening for anything else that would signify where the intruder was. For a few agonizing moments, there was nothing. But then there was the sound of heavy footfalls on the stairs, and the four of them tensed, waiting to see who would come up.

And then suddenly there was a figure emerging, momentarily hidden in the shadows of the dark hall, and Joe had his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. The figure seemed to realize the threat at the same time, and pulled a weapon of his own: a familiar bow, reaching behind him to grab an arrow from the quiver on his back, his masked face finally coming into view.

"Oliver?" Cisco asked, his voice tinged with surprise.

The Green Arrow wasn't easily startled, but his expression quickly morphed to such at the use of his name before recognizing the people he had thought were potential threats standing before him.

He let out an oddly relieved sounding curse before lowering his bow as, at the same time, Joe slowly lowered his gun, seeing that it was Barry's vigilante mentor standing there.

Oliver put a hand to his ear briefly where, just like Barry when he was in costume, had a com secured. "Felicity, we're all good. They're in here. You can put the cameras back online and come on up."

A very muffled "roger that" could be heard in response before Oliver pulled his hood down and peeled the mask off of his face.

"What the hell?" were the first words out of his mouth the the stunned members of Team Flash; a lot had happened in the past 48 hours, but Oliver and apparently Felicity showing up was the icing on the cake. "Why haven't you been answering your phones?"

"We're kind of a little busy dealing with something -" Iris began, but Oliver cut her off.

"Yes, I know, Barry was kidnapped," he said bluntly. "And Felicity and I thought that something had happened to _you all too,_ " he added, his expression sour. While Oliver wasn't very good with expressing emotions, it seemed clear to Team Flash that he had been worried over them.

"Sorry man," Cisco offered with a shrug. "But uh, you should probably know -"

Cisco didn't get to finish his sentence.

"This facility is huge," came the voice of Snart as he entered the Cortex again. "You really should have everything more clearly labeled." The man paused as he saw that someone new had joined their midst, and Oliver whirled around at the voice, a scowl on his face as he realized that it was too late to put his mask and hood back on to conceal his identity. Snart seemed genuinely, uncharacteristically surprised for a moment before regaining his composure, his usual calm and cool expression, almost as if he were bored.

"So Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow. Did not see that coming. Interesting."

Oliver's mouth twitched, his fists clenching at his sides as he whirled back around to face Team Flash. "What the _hell_ is he doing here!?" he demanded angrily. It might not have been the best time to be mad, to lose focus, but this was certainly a bump in the road. Leonard Snart figuring out his identity had _not_ been part of the day's plan.

"Oliver, he's here to help us," Caitlin was quick to jump in, seeing that things could easily escalate if Oliver wasn't calmed down. "He's agreed to help get Barry back."

"You asked a _criminal_ for help?" Oliver asked, still clearly floored. "Why didn't you just call us first!?"

"You have your own city and own issues to deal with," Iris began. "We didn't think -"

"Bullshit," Oliver interrupted. "I would never leave Barry to die. You should have called me."

Team Flash visibly flinched at the word 'die.' Oliver, meanwhile, turned back to face Snart, walking up to him with purpose and grabbing the front of his parka menacingly. "If you _ever_ tell another living soul about my identity, I swear -"

"Whoa." Felicity chose that moment to come into the room, her face surprised as she took in the scene before her. "Oliver, put that man down," she said, noting that her boyfriend was actually beginning to lift Snart up off of the ground in his anger. Oliver hesitated only a moment before letting go of the villain, shoving him backwards none-too-lightly with a sneer. Snart smoothed down the fabric of the parka, looking mildly amused.

"My my, what a temper," he said. Oliver looked about ready to go at him again, but Felicity shot him a warning look.

"Your services are no longer needed," the vigilante said hostilely. "I'm here now."

Team Flash shot each other uneasy looks.

"Listen, Oliver -" Cisco started, but was stopped from saying more when a noise sounded throughout the room, and all heads turned in its direction.

The crime alert was going off.

* * *

As Barry started to once again come to, he was mildly confused. He was aware of a presence in the room with him, but there was no chatter, no arguing. No nothing. It was eerily quiet, and he liked it decidedly less. What was happening? With more effort than really should have been required for such a simple action, he managed to peel his heavy eyelids open, blinking hard to try and clear his vision and focus on what was around him. He was still in the same spot he had been before he passed out, chained to the wall of the warehouse. His suit felt unnaturally stuck to his skin, whether from blood or from sweat or both, however, he wasn't sure. He still felt overheated, his body aching all over, and he realized belatedly as he shifted that Clay's knife was still stuck in his shoulder, eliciting a wince from the speedster. Upon making noise, he felt a pair of eyes suddenly settling on him, almost making him shiver. Barry's eyes moved slowly until they fell upon the figure of Nathan Bliss, meeting the other metahuman's gaze.

"Oh, you are still alive," came his voice, mildly amused. "Good."

Barry raised an eyebrow. So they didn't want him dead? He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. It probably just meant more pain in his future. For now, however, he seemed relatively safe. Bliss, it seemed, was the only one in the building with him. The fact also made him uneasy, however. Where had the others gone? The evil meta seemed to recognize his captive's confusion and chuckled at him.

"They've gone out to have some fun with this Godforsaken city," he said, and Barry tensed at the words, only able to imagine what their meaning of 'fun' could possibly be. He wasn't there to stop them and, even if he was miraculously freed, he doubted it would make a difference anyways. He was in no shape to take them on, as he had already found out. Not that he wouldn't still try, but that was besides the point.

"I got stuck on babysitting duty," Bliss continued, clearly not happy.

"You could go after them," Barry finally spoke up, his voice rasping and uncomfortable; Bliss only chuckled again.

"Nice try, Flash," he said simply. "I'm not stupid."

Barry sighed; he had doubted that would work, but out of all of the metas, Bliss did seem the most moldable. Apparently not as much as he had hoped. The meta stood from where he had previously been sitting on a crate, adjusting his tacky top hat as he approached the hero. Barry pressed himself flat against the wall, as far away from the man as he could, but he just came closer, crouching down to inspect him. He noticed the blade still stuck in Barry's shoulder, and a look of mock sympathy crossed over his face.

"That looks like it hurts," he noted, and reached for it. For a moment, he thought he was going to pull it out and braced himself, but the villain only gave it a good shove, as if seeing if he could wedge it in even farther. Barry hissed in pain, his vision going foggy once again, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself not to give in to it, to stay conscious.

"Whoops. Sorry," Bliss said with a malicious grin. "Would you like some other pain to focus on? It might help you forget about that," he added, flicking the hilt. Barry, his teeth still grit together, didn't grace him with a response.

"Maybe I could even film it," he said, casting a glance at the video camera to his right, still resting on a crate. "Mardon might find it fun to broadcast later."

The speedster's eyebrows knit together as he followed Bliss's gaze, spotting the camera for himself. When had that gotten there? Bliss grinned once again at the red-clad man's confusion.

"Oh, that's right," he said. "You were unconscious for our _first_ broadcast, weren't you?"

Barry felt his heartbeat pick up drastically. First broadcast? What the hell did that mean? Bliss seemed all too willing to explain.

" _We_ might not know the name that goes with that pretty face of yours," he said, patting one of Barry's cheeks as if making a point. "But someone out there does. I wonder how many of them already knew you were the Flash," he continued, "And how many of them were surprised to find out. How many other criminals out there would love to take a crack at you, now that they know what you look like."

Barry's eyes felt like they would pop out of his head as he realized what the man in front of was insinuating.

"That's right, Flash. Your secret isn't so secret anymore." He grinned wider, full-out laughing now as Barry sat there in horror. "How does _that_ feel, Flash?"

But Barry was barely listening anymore. Everyone knew. Everyone _knew his secret._

And all he could do was sit there and feel utterly hopeless.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, would you look at that, this chapter was actually longer than usual. I enjoyed writing this one. I am evil :) Until next time, guys! Hope you enjoyed!


	11. Go Time

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Here's the next chapter :) Just a little heads up, Barry isn't actually in this chapter, but obviously he's talked about. His POV will come back into play next chapter, and you'll see why :) Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

"Confirmed meta activity downtown, and a hell of a lot of it. It's gotta be them," Cisco's voice informed the other six people in the room, a somewhat excited look on his face for the first time in hours. This was what they had been hoping for. Granted, it was a little wrong, considering the general population was probably terrified, but this was the way to get Barry back; this was their plan coming into action. Only, that plan was a little complicated now that Oliver had shown up.

"Let me go," the vigilante insisted. "I'll take them down, torture them for information if I have to. They _will_ tell where Barry is."

"Oliver, there's six of them and one of you," Iris pointed out. "Not exactly the best odds."

"And I do believe we already had a plan that didn't include this chump,' Snart input, the corners of his mouth twitching. He was aware that he was getting a rise out of the Green Arrow, and he was enjoying it.

"Snart, I swear -" Oliver began menacingly, but was cut off by Joe.

"Nah uh, none of that," the detective said, his voice stern. "We are _not_ getting into an argument right now. We need to focus on my son."

"Look, we can make this work," Cisco chimed in, trying to disarm the situation. Joe was right; they did not have time to stand around and argue, or to break up any fights. Barry needed them.

"Yeah? How?" Oliver asked snappishly, arms crossed over his chest; he still did not look pleased with the situation. Felicity placed a hand on his shoulder as if trying to calm him, though it was without much effect.

"We planned for Snart to infiltrate their group," Iris stepped up to explain. "They all owe him a favor. We figured 'revenge on the Flash' would fulfil that. He gets in, lets us know where their hideout is, waits until he's alone with Barry or a good opportunity arises, and we get him out. You can be our assurance - watch our backs when that happens, or be there if things go wrong - if we don't get the opportunity we need," she said.

Oliver still did not seem rather fond of the plan, but the alert was still blaring in the background, reminding him and everyone else in the room that they needed to act, and fast.

"Fine," he grumbled finally; Team Flash smiled.

"Good. Then let's get him a com. We need to go," Caitlin spoke up, and rushed into action.

* * *

After jobs had been sorted, it didn't take long for things to get put into action. Felicity, Caitlin and Cisco stayed behind at STAR Labs, keeping an eye on Barry's vitals, news footage and surveillance videos of what was happening downtown. Joe, Iris, Oliver and Snart had all piled into a STAR Labs van and driven as fast as they could down to the site of the chaos, all speed limits be damned. Luckily, all available police officers seemed to be gathered downtown, though it was highly doubtful that anyone would have stopped them at that point anyways. Everyone knew who Joe and Iris were, and knew of their relationship with Barry - with the Flash.

The usually ten minute drive took only about four, and Iris couldn't help thinking that Barry probably would have gotten a kick out of that, would have smiled and made some stupid comment about how they were almost as fast as him. It brought a small smile to her face, but also a small pang to her heart - she just wanted him back, as did everyone else. And that was why they were going through with this crazy plan.

Joe was driving, and he pulled the van to a skidded stop right outside of a makeshift barrier of police cars already parked awkwardly, blocking off half the street. A few brave pedestrians were watching from farther back; far more unlucky ones were caught inside the danger zone, however, and had practically become the playthings of the gathered rogues. The entire police force was scattered about, all with weapons drawn and doing their best to control the situation, even when they were clearly outmatched by their opponents. It was like all hell had broken loose, and Iris couldn't help the way her heart sped up at the sight of it all. What she was looking at seemed almost exactly like the scene she had watched from the videos earlier but almost worse, and without Barry present.

Hail was flying everywhere, thunder rumbling and lightning crackling overhead - obviously Mardon's doing. The sick bastard was standing on a rooftop, grinning at the mess. She could see a few police officers actually fighting _each other_ in the midst of the stormy conditions, Bivolo's doing, though she couldn't spot him at the moment, which was a little unnerving. At least one officer was down with three cards sticking out of his body closer to where they were parked, making Iris wince; Jeremy Tell was striding over to the man casually, most likely to retrieve them. She really hoped he wasn't retrieving them from a corpse; that the man was alright. She couldn't see Bliss in the mix either, but Shawna and Clay were on the outskirts of everything, and Clay appeared to be talking to her, though it was impossible to know what about. She sucked in a breath and turned away from the scene, facing Snart instead.

"It's go time," she said. "Are you ready? Is your com working?"

Snart rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can hear every word your friends are saying. And let me just say, they never seem to shut up."

"Well unlike you, they're actually invested in this," Oliver snapped at the villain. Snart rolled his eyes.

"If I weren't invested even a little, I wouldn't be here, Queen," he pointed out. "Like I already told the rest of them: despite our differences, I wouldn't wish this upon Barry," he said, calm and cool as always. Iris decided not to bring up the fact that Barry would also owe him after this; she didn't want Oliver any more pissed off than he already was. It could compromise what they were doing, and nobody wanted that.

"Alright, Snart, get ready then," Joe stepped in, flipping the on switch on the walkie-talkie Cisco had given them. It was set to the same channel as the com link, which would allow him, Iris and Oliver to be able to communicate with Snart and their friends back at STAR as well. Snart nodded, and with that, Iris opened up the back doors of the van and Snart jumped out, equipped with his signature Cold Gun. It had been a little unsettling for everyone letting him have it with him, especially when in theory he was going to be with Barry. But if he wanted to be taken seriously, they reckoned that he would most likely need it; that did not mean they had to like it.

Joe jumped out moments after Snart, his regular gun at the ready. He had perhaps one of the most important jobs: to find Captain Singh in the midst of this all and convince him somehow to get the officers not to shoot Snart, and not to fatally wound any of the other Rogues; they needed them to take Snart back with them, to wherever Barry was, and that couldn't happen if there was a massacre. Though at this point, it appeared that if there were to be a massacre, it wouldn't be the cops killing the Rogues. It was a worrisome thought as Iris watched her father go, the back doors of the van slamming shut behind him. She forced herself to look back out the windshield at the scene before her, left alone with Oliver to watch, to wait. To oversee, and make sure everything went according to plan. Neither of them were happy with staying on the sidelines, but at least Iris could admit that it was the best thing for them to do right now. And she trusted Oliver enough to know that if things went awry, he would do everything he could to set it straight. All that was left for her to do now was clutch the walkie-talkie and wait.

* * *

Despite the chaos happening, it didn't take long for Joe to spot David Singh amongst the other officers, a brave face on as always and his gun cocked, shooting out at the metahumans attacking even when the weapon wasn't doing much to help; there were too many civilians trapped in the danger zone, the villains moving too quickly and expertly to be good targets from where the officers were standing by their cars, for some kind of protection.

"Captain!" Joe's voice rang out as he got within hearing range of his boss, watching Snart sneaking closer out of the corner of his eye; thankfully, it appeared that none of the detective's fellow officers had spotted him yet, too absorbed in the other six they were trying to stop.

Upon hearing Joe's voice, Singh's head snapped around, his eyes uncharacteristically wide as he saw the detective making his way towards him. "Joe," he said in surprise. He clearly hadn't expected him to be there, not after everything that had happened. And for a moment that was all he said, clearly unsure what else to say. There was an army of mostly-superpowered villains trying to tear a sector of the city apart, and there before him stood the foster father of the man who was the Flash. Who had managed to somehow keep the secret for so long, because of _course_ he knew - there was no way he didn't.

"Captain," Joe repeated as he finally came to a stop in front of a man, his face serious. Singh was so sure he was going to say something about Barry that the words that came out of his mouth next were a big surprise.

"You have to tell everyone not to kill them," he said. "And not to shoot Snart," he added; Singh's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Snart? Joe, what are you - what?"

Joe motioned offhandedly to the sidewalk, where Leonard Snart was slowly but surely making his way to the center of the commotion, the plan set well in motion. Singh's mouth nearly dropped open when he saw the man.

"Joe, what on _earth_ are you -" the captain started, but Joe shook his head, daring to cut him off for the first time in his life. Daring to give his boss an order.

"Just do it," Joe said firmly. "David, you have to trust me. This is for Barry. I'll explain later." For a moment, Singh stared at Joe in shock; and then, as he did often, he pulled himself together and nodded. He worried what Joe was up to, collaborating somehow with Snart. But he also trusted him

"I expect a _long_ explanation, Joe. From both you and Barry. Once he's back safe," the captain said, and even as worried and stressed out as he was, Joe couldn't help the smallest of twitches of his mouth. David still had hope.

* * *

Leonard Snart, though he would never admit it to anyone, was not very fond of the plan that Team Flash had cooked up. But it was a little late to bring up concerns as he found himself waltzing into the middle of a warzone, with a high chance of being used as target practice by the people he was supposed to get in with, or shot full of bullets by cops; he had to rely on Joe to handle the latter, and was mildly relieved when he saw the man chatting up the captain in his peripheral vision. It seemed to be going well. But he wasn't in the clear yet. Now was the hard part. He took only a moment to suck in a breath before leaving the safety of the car he was behind, stepping right into the middle of the storm that was still brewing, trying to dodge the tennis ball-sized chunks of hail that were raining down. If his cold gun got hit and malfunctioned, he had nothing to protect himself with. And he was admittedly quite fond of living. Unsurprisingly, Mardon was the first one to spot him from his spot up on a rooftop.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," his booming voice echoed across the street, making sure he was heard over the noise. Suddenly all eyes were on him; even Shawna and Clay looked up from whatever spat they were having to see what Mardon was referring to. He could feel the cops watching him too, and bristled slightly, thinking for sure that at least one would try to shoot. But with a single gesture from their captain, all weapons were lowered. Mardon used his powers to his advantage, forming a cloud to bring him down to the street where Snart was standing, cold gun at the ready. The storm around them still raged, though seemed to leave a clear patch around them as Mardon stood in front of him, Tell, Shawna, Clay and Bivolo quick to start converging as well. At this point, anyone who tried to get near them would most definitely be clobbered by some part of the weather, concussed by hail or battered by wind or some other alternative; no one was getting close.

"What are you doing here, Snart?" Mardon asked, a look on his face that Snart definitely didn't like. He didn't let it show, instead giving the man a sneer.

"I heard you all got ahold of the Flash," he said blatantly. "I want in."

"Do you now?" Bivolo spoke up, arms crossed over his chest. He eyed the newcomer. "And why would we allow you to do that? All the hard work was already done by _us_."

"And as I recall, I gave you the opportunity to help me kill the twat last Christmas. You turned me down," Mardon chimed back in, crossing his arms over his chest as well. "You think I'm stupid? There's some kind of reason, Snart."

Shawna eyed the thief and his cold gun warily; she had never expected anyone else to try and get in on this. If she was being honest, however, she didn't expect things to go as they had either; hadn't expected things to become so twisted. "We don't need you," she said stonily, her voice not betraying the way she felt.

"Oh really?" Snart asked. "So you don't want the use of this, then?" He motioned to his gun. "The Flash reacts _terribly_ to cold temperatures."

Mardon didn't say anything yet, but he eyed the cold gun greedily, as did Clay and Bivolo.

"And, maybe it doesn't matter much to you, but I even know that a certain Green Arrow is in the city and has plans to help rescue his little vigilante pal," Snart added, improvising as he went. Tell perked up at this, as Snart was hoping would happen; he knew the meta had a particular distaste for the man. "I didn't have to warn you about that, but…" he shrugged. "I did say I wanted in."

Everyone in the group eyed each other.

"And what do you get out of it, Snart?" Mardon asked, eyebrows cocked. "What reason would you possibly have to get back at the Flash _now_?"

"I'm sick of him racing around the city, always having to be the hero. You think I like having to lay low?" he asked, raising his own eyebrow. "I need an answer. Don't know how long the cops over there are gonna hold their fire."

"You're in," Tell was quick to say, a grin on his face; the information about the Green Arrow was enough for him, and he definitely wanted to grill the man for more information about that.

Shawna shot him a dirty look. " _I_ get to say if he's in or not," she snapped. "How much damage does that gun do? We're not trying to _kill_ him," she stressed. Judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, even her supposed boyfriend's, they weren't quite on board with that, which gave him a bit of an uneasy feeling. It wouldn't be so hard from their standpoint to overthrow the girl, if they weren't a fan of her leadership. Then Barry was really screwed.

"Enough," he said. "But I can control it."

"Shawna," Clay spoke up now for the first time. "He's in," the man said. Shawna opened and closed her mouth briefly, as if she wanted to protest but couldn't bring herself to do it. All the men were looking at her, waiting for her to try and oppose.

"Fine," she said finally, clearly not happy. "Whatever."

"Are you going to finish your little hissy fit here first?" Snart asked smugly as he was elected successfully into the group. "Or do I get to see the merchandise?"

The group of rogues looked around, as if surveying how much damage they had caused, how much fear they had stricken into the people of Central City.

"I'm curious to see how much you can do with that thing," Mardon said finally. "I say we take a break. I think Central gets the message; we're not done here."

Clay grinned, reaching out and giving the cold gun a pat. "Let's see what this baby can do."

Internally, Snart winced. Killing Barry before he could save him would not score him many points with the young man's friends, reinforced by the slight panicking he was hearing in his earpiece. He would have to figure something out on the fly. He knew Barry didn't react well with the gun, and if he was as worse off as everyone seemed to be implying, he didn't want to know what would happen if he used it on him. But apparently, neither did Shawna. Perhaps he could work with that. For the moment, however, he only grinned like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Yes. Let's.'

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hope you all liked the chapter :) Like I said, Barry will be back in the next one! Until next time!


	12. Mutiny

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! This chapter is kind of short; it's a little under 2000 words, but I have to admit that I struggled with this one. I'm not really sure why, but it wasn't a simple process; my muse didn't want to work with me on this haha. But I hope you'll enjoy it anyways. Hope to see some reviews :)

* * *

Barry wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed while he was alone with Bliss. If he had to guess, he would have said it was about an hour later when he heard the tell-tale sounds of his other captors returning, the shuffling of their feet echoing throughout the warehouse, the idle chatter as they grew closer. Despite the horrors of being in this situation, he felt a small sense of relief to know that they were back; if they were here, then they weren't out causing trouble in the city. He would rather them hurt him than any of the innocent people out there. And, hey, maybe, just maybe, their jaunt in the city had given his friends some kind of opportunity to get to him. Though he wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, either, them putting themselves at risk for him; because he knew without a doubt that they were working to do so. He knew them too well.

The speedster lifted his head weakly as the group came into view, and for a moment, he almost didn't believe his own eyes. Perhaps this sickness was really getting to him, or Bliss had done something again, like the trick earlier where he had seen his dead mother. Because there was absolutely no way that was who he thought it was. He blinked hard, trying to bring himself to his senses, but no - the man he was so surprised to see was still there when he stopped.

It was Snart. Snart was there.

Barry stared at the criminal, mouth slightly open, eyes questioning, and for a moment Snart stared back. The speedster couldn't quite identify the look in his eyes, but it didn't matter, because just as quickly he turned away, his gaze no longer focused on him. Barry continued to stare, however, his eyes tracking his every movement with the small bit of energy he could still muster up.

"What's going on here?" Bliss was the first to address the situation, his eyes locked on Snart momentarily before turning an accusatory look to the rest of his supposed team. "Who's this clown? If I'm not mistaken, he was not with you when you all left," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You can call me Captain Cold," Snart replied almost immediately, his voice smooth, a smirk playing at his lips. Barry couldn't be sure, but something seemed to be...well, something seemed to be _off_ about it. Although, something was off about this entire situation. What the _hell_ was Snart doing here? He didn't do anything without some grand reason, and they had a truce - he was supposed to leave him and his friends and family alone. So what was this about?

"He says he wants in on the action," Bivolo piped up, arms crossed over his chest.

"And that the Green Arrow is here," Tell added, his voice almost giddy at the prospect of revenge on the man who had gotten him imprisoned; Barry perked up slightly at hearing that piece of information. If Oliver was in the city, then surely he'd be out of here soon. The vigilante was good at his job, especially when it became personal. It made him less worried about his team stumbling in here trying to save him; Oliver wouldn't let them do anything stupid, or anything that would get them hurt.

"Which is not important," Mardon snapped, rolling his eyes.

"It is if he plans to try and rescue him, like Snart said," Tell replied, motioning to Barry with a wave of his hand.

"Well, he's not going to. We'll make sure of that. In the meantime, however, Snart is here to give us a little demonstration."

Barry tensed at those words, a feeling of dread overcoming him, especially once he realized what was in Snart's hands. He had his cold gun. How had he not noticed that sooner? It wasn't like he had been concealing it, or even could conceal it. The contraption was far too big.

"Snart, don't," Barry said quietly, his tone pleading, his eyes watering. He remembered the previous times he had been struck by the cold blasts of the gun, how his whole body would go numb and begin shutting down. How bad it hurt. He swallowed a lump in his raw throat as he imagined how it would feel in his current state, where every inch of him hurt enough already. But Snart refused to meet his eyes; in fact, it was almost as if he were trying to look anywhere but at him.

"Is there really even a point to this?" Snart asked. "He's obviously already weak. If you want to draw out his torture, the less we use this the better. Wouldn't want him dying on you so soon."

"What, are you chickening out, Snart? Taking his side? Because as Shawna already mentioned, we really don't need you here, if you're not going to bring anything to the team," Clay said. Shawna stood idly by his side, holding onto his arm, looking almost anxious.

Barry watched the conversation wearily. Was Snart...was he actually trying to protect him? Barry had had many encounters with the man, and he knew - if he wanted to use his cold gun, he would have done it already. But he hadn't.

Snart rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm not taking his side, you imbecile," he scoffed. "If you insist, I'll use it. But any side-effects, such as possible death, are on you," he added with a shrug. The thief stepped forward until he was standing in front of Barry, his gun pointed at the speedster. Barry's heart began racing again, and he looked up at Snart, was able to meet his eyes this time. And he could see it now, the mix of bitter emotions roiling inside of them. Snart didn't want to do this; he didn't want to use the gun on Barry. But there was no relief at the realization, because once again, it didn't matter.

There was only a moment's hesitation from Snart before he pulled the trigger, and he felt ice encasing him.

* * *

"Snart, damn it, what the hell did you do!?" Cisco shouted into the com system on the desk he was sitting at; but it was a question he didn't really need to ask. He _knew_ what had happened, and knew why too. He knew he had had to, but it didn't stop his heart from pounding, or the subsequent cursing and panic that occurred between himself, Caitlin and Felicity as they watched Barry's vitals drop drastically, the monitor letting out an ear-splitting series of wild beeps. A warning that they didn't need. And above it all, they could hear the heart-wrenching scream Barry let out as the blast from the cold gun hit him.

Snart, of course, didn't answer them - couldn't answer them. Voices picked up again on the other end of the line, chuckles and noises of excitement from the rogues who had just witnessed the spectacle, but the three people in the Cortex were hardly listening at the moment; they couldn't listen, didn't have time to.

"Caitlin, the heater in the suit - press the button! Now!" Cisco instructed, as the doctor was closest to it. Caitlin, her face pale, nodded quickly and moved as fast as Cisco had ever seen anyone move in heels. Her fist slammed down on a button at one of the monitors seconds later, and they all waited with baited breath, eyes glued to the screen displaying Barry's vitals. The beeping came to a stop and, incredibly slowly, his vitals started to pick back up. But they didn't continue to rise, stopping too shortly after with not much improvement at all. His heart rate and breathing were too slow, his temperature and blood pressure fluctuating alarmingly. One glance at the girls told Cisco that they were just as concerned; Felicity was white-faced, Caitlin biting at her lip hard enough to draw blood.

"Snart, you _can't_ do that again," Cisco spoke. "Even if it means blowing your cover. Barry can't handle it," he said urgently. Snart once again didn't answer; Cisco desperately hoped he would listen, because damn it, Barry was one of closest friends; hell, he was family. And he couldn't afford to lose him. None of them could.

* * *

"That was _awesome,_ " Mardon said with a grin, watching the speedster writhe and breathe heavily, rattling the chains secured around his wrists. The ice that had formed around him had already somehow melted off for the most part but he didn't care in the least. Snart had been right; the Flash really did react terribly to the cold. He was shivering, his eyes half-lidded.

Snart, however, felt sick to his stomach. A feeling which, admittedly, he was not at all used to having evoked in him, especially not by Barry Allen of all people. But it was there all the same, and his heart thumped a little harder in his chest as he heard Cisco screeching at him through his earpiece, exclaiming that he couldn't do that again - not if Barry were to live. And yet -

"Do it again," Mardon spoke again with a laugh, his eyes glinting. Snart opened his mouth, about to say _something_ to get himself out of it; even if Cisco hadn't yelled a desperate warning, he couldn't have brought himself to do it again. But someone else beat him to it.

"No. That is _enough,_ damn it," Shawna spoke up loudly, firmly, stepping forward away from her boyfriend. Snart noticed that she was shaking just as Barry was, though it wasn't from the temperature drop in the room. She was furious; he could see it in her eyes, in the way she moved.

"We're done here," she continued, moving to stand in front of Barry. "This is not - this is not what I wanted. We're done. He's suffered enough."

Snart looked relieved. Mardon, on the other hand, gained a look furious enough to match Shawna's.

"We are not done, princess," he spat. "We're just getting started."

"He'll die!" Shawna yelled back, eyes blazing.

"Then so be it," Mardon countered, his look dangerous.

"Shawna, this is what the plan was all along," Clay said, calmer than Mardon was but clearly peeved as well. "You agreed to this."

"I did not agree to murder him," she spat. "I didn't agree to _this_." She gestured at the speedster behind her, still barely coherent. "This is too far!"

"Then perhaps you should leave while you have the chance," Tell chimed in, taking a step closer to the girl. His eyes were narrowed; he was too invested in this now. He couldn't lose his shot at the Green Arrow.

"Snart, again," Mardon instructed.

Instead, Snart lowered his gun, pointing it down at the floor instead of at Barry.

"No," he said fiercely. And suddenly everyone's eyes were on him. Shawna looked shocked, though in a somewhat pleasant way; she clearly hadn't expected any of them to side with her. The others, however, had on expressions showing so much rage that they might as well have been under Bivolo's influence.

" _No_?" Mardon asked incredulously. "Why, you fucking -" He didn't even let himself finish his own sentence, charging suddenly at Snart with his hands raised high, ready to draw on his power -

He didn't get very far.

Snart raised his cold gun, aimed it at his chest, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Aaaaand that's it for now! But hey, at least the new episode is on tonight. Until next time guys!


	13. Rescue

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! So I wanted this chapter up sooner, but ironically I've been sick. Go figure. But I'm finally feeling better, so I finally got this done! It feels a little chaotic to me, and was a little hard to write considering the large amount of characters all interacting in this one, but I think it came out okay? Let me know what you think! Also, just a heads up, this story is probably close to wrapping up? Probably within the next few chapters? I have a loose plan for how this is going to finish up, and it shouldn't take many more chapters to accomplish but I guess we'll see how it goes! Also, I promise the next chapter will be longer. I feel like I've been a little lacking in the length department. Anyways, enjoy guys!

* * *

For a few seconds, the warehouse was quieter than it had been since the rogues had taken up residence in it. Then there was the sound of Mardon's frozen body hitting the floor, a dull thud echoing through the spacious area. The man hadn't even gotten a chance to scream. For a moment, everyone stared at the corpse of the man who just seconds ago had been a threatening ball of rage. Then Snart slowly looked up, his eyes scanning over the other men of the group, his cold gun still held at the ready. In all honesty, he hadn't come here with the intent of killing anyone. In fact, he had made a pact with Barry a long time ago that he wouldn't kill anyone else. But he somehow doubted the man would object after this.

"Anyone else?" the villain asked cooly, index finger twitching on the trigger of the gun. Bivolo and Bliss shared one look and decided to take the smart route, bolting, which earned a smirk from Snart. Tell and Clay, however, were not so easily threatened, despite the lifeless, frozen body of their partner lying on the floor.

Tell almost immediately began drawing cards from his body, throwing them with precision, and Snart snarled as he didn't move quick enough, one managing to lodge itself in his shoulder. He pulled the trigger on the cold gun, sending a blast towards the meta, but he was prepared and rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding suffering the same fate as Mardon had. Clay came up behind Snart as he was focused on Jeremy and, having now powers of his own, settled on jumping on his back, trying to knock him off his balance. Snart stumbled, Clay nearly succeeding, but Shawna seemed to snap out of her stupor at that moment, tearing her eyes away from Mardon's corpse, her gaze now locking on the fight that was happening in front of her. And she sprung, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend and pulling him off of Snart with a force she didn't even know she had. Snart gave her a quick nod of approval, pulling the card from his shoulder before turning his attention back to Tell, who had gotten back up and was ready to start throwing them again.

He turned on him and, before the man could get very far in his action, fired again in his direction. Tell went to dodge again, but this time was a hare too slow; the cold blast hit his right arm, and the man screamed out in agony, falling to his knees with gritted teeth. Snart moved in to take another shot, to finish it, but a voice stopped him.

"Snart! Don't," Shawna said, stepping forward and gripping his arm. "Don't," she repeated upon seeing his raised eyebrow. He watched her as she walked towards the injured meta and, with one swift kick, knocked him out. His eyes then travelled the rest of the vicinity, searching for Clay, and settled on the man on the floor behind him, also out cold. Seeing that the threats seemed to be taken care of, the thief finally hurried over to Barry's side. The speedster was unconscious now, and Snart nearly winced as he got a good look at the younger man. He definitely wasn't in good shape. He was almost ghostly pale, dark bags standing out under his eyes. Despite the blast he had given the hero from his cold gun, he could practically feel the fever heat emanating from the skin not covered by his suit. He cursed and put a hand to his earpiece.

"Empty warehouse in the 4th district, off of North Street. Someone get their ass here fast." And then he promptly turned the device off and took it out of his ear, not wanting to focus on the slew of worried voices that began to come through all at once. He knelt beside Barry, using his cold gun to freeze the chains around his wrists attached to the wall; he was easily able to snap them after that, and the speedster slumped to the floor. Snart turned him onto his back carefully.

"Barry," he said, placing a hand on the shoulder that didn't have the knife lodged on it; he wasn't going to touch that. Leave it to someone who knew what they were doing, he figured. He shook him gently, not wanting to make him any worse off than he already was. "Come on, kid, wake up." The speedster didn't stir, however, and Snart cursed.

"Barry," Shawna echoed, her voice quiet but startling Snart all the same as she came to kneel beside him suddenly. He had momentarily forgotten that she was there. "That's...that's his name?"

"Not the focus right now," Snart replied snappishly, eyes still on Barry. He moved his hand from the speedster's shoulder and, without much hesitation, began patting his cheek harshly, still trying to rouse the man. "Barry _,"_ he repeated; a small groan escaped Barry's lips, but his eyes remained firmly closed. Snart let out a sigh, finally withdrawing his hand. His efforts clearly weren't doing any good. Thankfully, he didn't have to shoulder the responsibility of the sick and injured man for much longer. Only about a minute later, there was the sound of a door slamming open, of multiple pairs of footsteps echoing quickly in their direction. And then Iris, Joe, and Oliver materialized, making their way over quickly. As Snart watched, all three of them dropped to their knees as he had, taking in the sorry sight of their friend.

" _Barry,"_ Iris choked out, tears pricking at her eyes. She had been rather strong throughout the entire ideal, but Snart supposed seeing her friend like this was a bit much for her. He stood up and stepped back, not wanting to get in their way. Shawna seemed to take the hint as well and did the same. Unfortunately for her, it only drew attention to herself. Oliver's eyes flicked towards her, and they hardened with anger.

"You," he said, his voice deep as he disguised it. "You did this." Faster than anyone could blink, he had an arrow drawn and strung on his bow, ready to release it. Shawna, despite the fact that she could have teleported out of the path of the projectile, seemed frozen with fear as her eyes locked on it and the intense man wielding the weapon. With a sigh of almost annoyance, Snart forced himself to step in front of the girl, successfully blocking her from Oliver's intended rage.

"Your friend there," he spoke, motioning to Barry, "Is still alive because she helped in taking out her cohorts," he said, extending his hand gestures to three bodies scattered on the ground, the one dead and two out cold. The anger in Oliver's eyes seemed to waiver, but not fade.

"She started the entire thing," he continued. "Move out of the way, Snart."

"Can't do that," Snart replied cooly.

"Both of you cut it out," Joe snapped, eyeing Shawna with anger and wariness as well but not acting on it, as Oliver seemed intent on doing. "Leave her alone for now. Barry is the focus." Obviously, _something_ had to be done about the girl, but now was not the time - and they didn't have the means. Cisco had the power-dampening cuffs, and he, Felicity and Caitlin hadn't arrived yet. Which wasn't good in respect to that or the fact that Barry needed a doctor, and none of the five conscious people in the room met those requirements.

" _Barry,_ " Iris's voice rang out again. "Bar, wake up." She had moved him gently at this point, careful not to aggravate any of his visible injuries. She had his head resting in her lap, and was shaking him carefully as Snart had only minutes ago; she was having the same rotten luck as he had been however, not succeeding in making him stir. She turned her worried gaze to her father, about to open her mouth to say something when the sound of a door banging open once again echoed throughout the warehouse, and in seconds Cisco, Felicity and Caitlin came rushing over, the doctor of the group prepared with a small medical bag in hand.

Snart noticed that Caitlin's face seemed to pale as she got closer and saw the condition that Barry was in, but she didn't let the sight deter her; she was the only one who could work on him, after all. She knelt down next to where he was lying half-on Iris and immediately started assessing him.

"Shit," came Cisco's voice as he stood off to the side with Felicity, concern etched clearly on his face as he got a good look at his friend; he seemed nearly as pale as Caitlin was. Felicity hit him offhandedly at the exclamation, but she didn't look very positive either as she watched Caitlin work. As she began to pull the knife from his shoulder, the blonde turned away, not wanting to watch as the blood started pouring out of the wound.

"Cisco." Joe looked up from his son momentarily, tired eyes locking on the engineer, and his head nodded towards Shawna. Under different circumstances, Snart might have been amused as he watched the man jump at the sight of her. He quickly fumbled for the cuffs and tossed them to Joe, who stood now and clamped them quickly onto the girl's wrists; she didn't give the detective any trouble, allowing the man to put them on easily and hanging back from the others, keeping put.

After a few minutes of Caitlin doing her best to stabilize him, she looked up, face still slightly pale but expression stern, serious; she had gone into full-on doctor mode, and even Snart, who barely knew her, could tell.

"I've done all I can do here," she said. "We need to get him back to STAR Labs, now. Cisco, Joe - I need you two to carry him out to the van. _Very carefully,_ " she stressed, and the engineer looked at the detective nervously but nodded just the same.

"When you get him there, set him down gently in the back - don't jar him. Iris, I'm gonna need you to drive so I can stay back there and with them and keep an eye on him on the way back. Okay?" Iris nodded immediately as well, though she did not seem overly keen to have to take her eyes off of the superhero even for a second. But this was all for him - to keep him safe. To keep him alive.

"Snart, Felicity, Ol - Arrow," the doctor caught herself almost saying Oliver's name, but stopped the slip, eyeing Shawna. "You guys go back in Joe's car - take her with you," she said, nodding her head at the teleporting meta. "She - she's going back in the pipeline, until we figure out what to do with her. Shawna hung her head down, looking at the floor, but for once didn't argue.

"What about them?" Felicity spoke up after a moment, biting her lip as she gestured to the the two still-unconscious accomplices and the frozen corpse of Mardon on the floor.

Caitlin hesitated, sucking in a breath. "I - I don't - there's not enough room in the cars for them," she said.

"I'll handle it," Oliver spoke up gruffly after a moment. "Go without me, I've got it." A few members of the group looked like they wanted to protest, but they did not have time to waste, and they all knew it.

"Okay," Felicity acknowledged his choice, giving him a quick hug. "Stay safe." Oliver gave her a nod, and then everyone jumped into action. Cisco and Joe, under Caitlin's watchful eye, began lifting the limp speedster, both wrapping one of his arms around their shoulder to support his weight. They began walking carefully back the way they had all come in, Caitlin following immediately behind them. It was Iris and Felicity next, keeping a close eye on Shawna as they guided her out, and finally Snart bringing up the rear. It took a few minutes to carefully load Barry into the back of the van, but they managed, and soon everyone was set.

With Iris in one driver's seat and Felicity in the other, the group took off for STAR Labs.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** That's it for now! On a side note however, who's excited for the crossover!? I was a little disappointed last night when Barry and Cisco only showed up in like the last minute of Supergirl, but I'm super excited for the rest! Also, *spoiler*, like holy shit Cisco. Couldn't believe when he basically said Barry _wasn't his friend_. The sass was real. And Barry's face. Like just, damn. But anyways, until next time guys! Peace out.


	14. Unlikely Team-ups

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Got this chapter done sooner than last time, so here it is! I actually took it in a totally different direction than I was initially planning to. This was like kind of sort of my way original plan, which got changed, but now I've circled back to it again? Lol, the struggles of a writer. But I think the way I ended up going is a better plot and ties some loose ends together. Anyways, hope you all enjoy! :)

* * *

Iris West broke multiple traffic laws driving the van back to STAR Labs. She got multiple horns beeped at her and dirty looks from other drivers, but she didn't care the least bit. Her focus was on one thing and one thing only, and that was getting Barry back to the complex where Caitlin could work on him. She spared several looks in the rearview mirror on the way there, trying to catch glimpses of the speedster. Caitlin, Cisco and her father were blocking him for the most part, however.

What should have been a ten to fifteen minute drive was diminished to only five minutes in the end, and Iris pulled the van right up to the front doors before halting to a screeching stop. As soon as the vehicle was put into park, she was on the move, unstrapping and practically leaping from the driver's seat out of the car, to the back. The back doors of the van were already thrown open as she walked over, and Cisco and Joe were easing him out as the second car containing Snart and Felicity pulled into the lot next to them.

"Caitlin, how is he?" Iris asked urgently as Joe and Cisco started hauling him off into the facility, Caitlin on their heels and Iris right behind her. Felicity and Snart were just getting out of their own vehicle, grabbing ahold of the still-cuffed Shawna and making their way to join the others as well. Caitlin's expression was grim.

"As good as he can be right now," was the only answer Iris got, and it wasn't the one that she was looking for. But it was all Caitlin was willing to say, clearly, and Iris didn't push; she didn't want to break the doctor's focus. She instead closed her mouth and continued into STAR Labs with the rest of them, keeping as close as she could to Barry without getting in the way. It didn't take long for Cisco and Joe to get the speedster laid out carefully on the bed in the med bay, and Caitlin set to work immediately. Joe disappeared with the teleporting meta, to lock her safely in her old pipeline cell.

"Iris," Caitlin's voice rang out as she walked quickly to the other side of the room, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a pair of gloves, which she wasted no time putting on. "Get his suit off, carefully. I need to be able to see everything." Iris nodded immediately as Cait went in an almost frenzy around the room, gathering different supplies and starting to set them up on a medical cart. As the other woman had instructed, Iris set to work on her own task removing the suit from her unconscious friend. As she began to strip it off, she was reminded unpleasantly of when she had had to do the exact same thing the previous day, after his fight with Shawna. However, she would have much preferred _that_ situation over this one. Barry was clearly in much worse shape now, and it became even more apparent as she undressed him down to his boxers once more. She could feel the heat radiating off of him, and she stifled a gasp at seeing the multiple bruises that littered the now exposed skin.

As Caitlin walked over to his side with the medical cart in tow, she gently pushed the reporter out of the way, forcing her to step back a few paces, sparing her a quick, understanding look. There was fear in her eyes, but clear determination as well. _I know,_ her gaze seemed to say. _I'm going to fix him._

Iris bit her lip, anxiously watching the doctor's every move as she started trying to patch Barry up. She was aware of her father reappearing to stand close to her side, providing a slim comfort; the others were close as well, Felicity and Cisco standing together on the opposite side of the bed, Snart off to himself but watching with just as much vigilance as everyone else, which was admittedly a little surprising to Iris. But she didn't keep her focus on him; her first - scratch that, her only - priority was keeping an eye on Barry.

Not for the first time since finding out that her best friend was the Flash, she really wished that pain killers would work on him as she watched what Caitlin was doing, poking and prodding and disinfecting and stitching and just _so much._ She knew that whatever pain he had already felt, it would be doubled, maybe tripled when he woke up with all the aggravation Caitlin's actions were bound to cause. But she knew that everything the doctor did was necessary, and would help him out in the long run.

It was over an hour later when Cait finally seemed satisfied with her work and stepped back, looking exhausted. The shoulder that the knife had been plunged into was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages, and there were stitches clearly noticeable near the speedster's temple, where there had been a long gash from God-knew-what, along with a large purple bruise. There were also one or two stitches in his right cheek from a thin but deep slice that had been opened up in the skin. Overall, he still looked like shit, appearing so unnaturally pale and fragile on the bed as Caitlin pulled the sheet up over his torso.

"Can someone get me the thermometer?" the doctor asked, her voice sounding somewhat strained. Iris immediately moved to get it before anyone else could, grabbing it from the counter it had been previously left on and placing it in Caitlin's outstretched hand. The woman wasted no time sticking it in Barry's ear, pressing the button and waiting. Now that the injuries that needed immediate attention had been dealt with, she knew his underlying illness needed to be processed as well. As the device beeped, Caitlin pulled it out, and grimaced as she read the numbers displayed on the tiny screen.

"What?" Iris asked worriedly, the first to notice Caitlin's sour expression. "What's it say?" Caitlin was silent a moment, still staring at the screen as if hoping the numbers would change; they didn't.

"104.9," she said finally.

"That's - that's really high, right?" Cisco asked, concern evident in his voice; Caitlin bit her lip.

"It's not great," she said. "It's gone up a lot, since last time. He does run a little hotter than normal people, but still. If it keeps going up - which is a high possibility at this point - it could be serious."

"But you can do something about it, right?" the voice belonged to Joe this time, and Caitlin sucked in a somewhat shaky breath.

"Joe...like I said already, this is a complicated thing. If he were left to rest, I would like to say it would have run it's course with few complications, other than what had already developed. But now…" Caitlin trailed off.

"But you said you could make a cure," Joe pressed, hopeful.

"If I had a sample of blood from the meta that infected him. Which I don't."

"So we just have to get it then," Felicity spoke up now, her voice firm despite her face giving away the fact that she was in no way confident over anything at this moment in time.

"Except we don't know who she is or where she is. She disappeared after Barry fought her, before we could get any information on her," Cisco informed the techie, biting at his own lip now.

"But we're going to find her," Iris piped up finally, her voice just as firm as Felicity's had been. "I'll do it myself, if I have to."

"Iris, absolutely not. That's out of the question. If she got the best of Barry, there's no telling what else she's capable of."

"So what? We're just supposed to let him get worse, then?" Iris retorted angrily.

"He might not get worse," Caitlin tried to calm her, but her voice lacked confidence.

"Yeah, but you _just_ said it was a possibility. And a high one, at that." Caitlin bit at her lip again; she seemed torn.

Finding this meta could be dangerous; could be a terrible idea, might not even be needed.

But it could be the difference between Barry healing or not.

"Iris, no. End of story. You're not going," Joe said with finality in his voice, written on his face, in his stance.

Iris found herself storming out of the room, and by the silence she left behind she knew that no one was going to come after. They had Barry to look out for, after all.

 _Barry._

Iris found herself in the Cortex, promptly slumping down in one of the chairs and seeming to deflate, placing her head in her hands.

 _Barry._

How the hell had things gotten so bad so fast? How had things come to this? The journalist was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her, didn't know that anyone was there until she heard a voice that made her jump, her head snapping back. Snart was standing there in front of her, and he had said something, but she had been too caught up in herself to have comprehended it.

"What?" she asked, watching him, the way he was looking at her.

"I said I'll help you," he said, and Iris frowned, looking at him with mild confusion.

"Help with what?"

The man rolled his eyes, giving her a look like she was dense. But she wasn't exactly thinking at her clearest at the moment, with everything that was going on. She wasn't at her best.

"You want to find the metahuman, right? The one who infected Barry?" Iris eyed the man with surprise, her gaze skeptical.

"And you really want to help with that?" she asked, crossing her arms. "Why?"

Snart rolled his eyes again.

"Have we not already been over this? I -"

"You didn't wish that on Barry, even if you weren't on great terms. He'll owe you. Bla bla, yeah, I know that," Iris replied snappishly. "But you already fulfilled your end of the bargain. There's nothing in this for you anymore. So why?"

Snart let out an almost annoyed sigh. "Because I want to, alright? No strings attached. Do you want my help, or not? No one in there seemed overly keen on working with you."

Iris stared at the villain for several tense moments, still slightly skeptical but moreso...surprised. She didn't know much about Snart, had never even come face-to-face with the man until last Christmas. But she knew he didn't care about much; that he didn't do much for other people, aside from Mick and his sister. Yet for whatever reason, in this moment, he seemed rather genuine. And so despite her previous reservations, she couldn't help but feel compelled.

"...okay," she said finally. "Fine. But I'm calling the shots."

The corners of Snart's mouth upturned the slightest bit.

"I figured."

* * *

When Oliver finally made it back to STAR Labs, he was surprised to actually find a fairly sizeable crowd of people camped outside. Many were just normal civilians, but he spotted several news crews in the mix, and a sour look crossed over his face. This was about Barry, then. Or about the Flash, really. How anyone had managed to find out about his involvement with and whereabouts at STAR Labs so fast, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to try and deal with them. The last thing he needed or wanted to do was add to the excitement and chaos and throw his own vigilante persona into the mix; if anyone saw the Green Arrow striding into the building, they would go ballistic. And they might attempt to follow him inside. Quite annoyed, the hero found himself having to sneak around to the backside of the building and find a way in through a blown-out window, perhaps damaged in the long-ago explosion and neglected during the repairs. It didn't matter to him, as long as he was in.

It hadn't been difficult to deal with the Clay, Double Down and Mardon. He had used his cell to leave an anonymous tip to CCPD that the two living criminals as well as the frozen corpse of Mardon had been found in an empty warehouse, and waited there until the cops had shown up. He had kept hidden after that, watching to make sure Tell was adequately secured in the power-dampening cuffs and all three of them had been taken away in squad cars. Then he had slipped away and made his way back to STAR. When he made it up the stairs, back to the parts of the compound that were actually still used, the first people he came across were Iris and Snart. The sight of the villain gave him an unpleasant feeling, but for once he kept his anger inside; despite his dislike of the man, he had helped get Barry back, just like he had promised. Why he was still there was another story, but not his top question at the moment.

"Iris," Oliver spoke up, peeling back his hood and stripping off his mask, flinging it onto the desk as he approached. The girl jumped at his unexpected presence and turned to face him, looking oddly guilty. Oliver raised an eyebrow but said nothing about it, yet.

"How's Barry?" he asked instead, face creased with concern. Iris frowned.

"He's, uhm - stable," she said. "Caitlin patched up his injuries. But he doesn't look great. And his fever's back up pretty high." The girl bit her lip. Oliver ran a hand through his short hair.

"Damn it," he muttered, closing his eyes to collect himself for a moment before opening them once more, making eye contact with Iris again rather than Snart. "What are you two doing out here, then? Instead of being in there with him?"

For a moment, Iris looked uncharacteristically unsure of herself, casting a look at Snart out of the corners of her eyes.

"What's it to you?" Snart answered. Oliver scowled at him briefly before turning his gaze back to Iris. It was rather odd, he thought, that she wasn't in the room with Barry, considering how close the two were. Something was up.

"Iris?" he pushed, crossing his arms.

"I needed a break," she answered vaguely. Oliver sensed, however, that it wasn't the full truth. He could see it in her face, in her body language. He was good at reading people.

"That's not it," he said surely. "What stupid thing are you planning?" he then proceeded to ask bluntly. Iris, caught off guard, gaped at the man. She didn't know him well, and vice versa - how the hell had he managed to catch on to that fact so quickly? But there was no coming back from it now; he clearly knew something was up. If she wanted to salvage this, to keep him from bringing it up to the others, she had to spill.

"Snart and I are going to find the meta that caused this," she answered confidently, her tone challenging. _Try to stop us,_ it seemed to say. Oliver frowned.

"Iris, do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Did you talk her into this?" He turned his look angrily to Snart.

"He didn't make me do anything. I want to do this. And I'm a grown woman, damn it. Everyone needs to stop treating me like I'm some goddamn fragile _child_."

Oliver was thrown for a loop at her words, silent for a moment. She was serious, he realized. Dead serious. She was going to do this, whether she had approval from everyone else or not. And she clearly didn't, judging from the fact that she was out here alone talking about it with Snart. The vigilante closed his eyes momentarily again, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a breath. Everything always had to be complicated with Team Flash, didn't it? There was silence for another moment, until Oliver opened his eyes once more, looking between the journalist and thief. Quite the unlikely pair. And soon to be trio.

"Then I'm coming with you."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Yay me! I actually kept my promise and made this longer than the last 2 chapters lol. Anyways, hope this chapter sufficed! Until next time!


	15. Determination

**Author's Note:** So, I felt the need to address something quickly that you guys may or may not have thought about while reading this: Cisco's powers. During the time period this story is taking place in, Cisco does in fact have his Vibe powers. However, the use of them in this story would make things too easy. Like, they would have immediately known where Barry was when he was kidnapped, probably been able to locate the mysterious meta somehow, and would also be able to find Oliver, Iris and Snart. Obviously, for this story to progress like it has, that can't happen. So I am not including his powers; for all intents and purposes, he does currently have them, but I'm going to say it was during the point in time where he didn't really know how to control them, and therefore they are not very useful to the team right now. In case anyone was wondering. Anyways, on with the story! Hope to see some reviews :) And I hope you enjoy Singh's perspective ;)

* * *

For Captain David Singh, the past few days had been some of the strangest and most stressful out of his time working at the CCPD. This being the case, the last thing he wanted to see was a large crowd blocking his path to STAR Labs as he pulled up to the facility and jumped out of his police cruiser. And as if the universe was personally out to attack him, of course the crowd surged on him as soon as they saw him approaching.

"Captain! What is your opinion on what has been going on the past few days?"

"Captain! How does it feel to know that the Flash was working in the CCPD all this time without your knowledge?"

"Captain, can we get a quote?"

Singh suddenly found multiple news station workers bombarding him with questions, ones that he was certainly in no mood to answer.

"Alright, alright, clear a path or I'll be forced to arrest _someone_ , damn it," the Captain said loudly, and immediately most of the people backed off with mumbled disappointments. A few civilians snapped pictures of him as he stepped up to the doors, pulling on them. Only to find them locked tight, of course. He had been prepared for that. With a sigh, the tired man pulled a lockpick from his pocket; it took him only a few seconds to get the doors open and to stride inside, locking them back up tight.

It also took only seconds for an alarm to start ringing throughout the building, red lights suddenly flashing. Singh jumped in his surprise, looking around. Damn it, had he triggered that? His heart racing from the surprise, he started for the first set of stairs he found - only to find someone already on their way down them, and a gun suddenly in his face. Nervously looking up, David found himself looking into the determined face of Joe West, who seemed to recognize his boss at the same time, eyes slightly wide.

"Captain," Joe greeted awkwardly, putting his weapon back on safety and shoving it back into its holster. "What - how in the holy hell did you get in here?"

Singh held up the lockpick in response, and Joe let out a humorless chuckle.

"Figures," the man replied, and looked at him quizzically. "But what are you doing here?"

"I came to see Barry," Singh replied, with a dredged up smile that looked more like a grimace. "I heard that he was...back," he added. "How's he doing?"

At the question, Joe's face hardened. "He's, ah - stable. He's stable," the detective replied. "But there's still some - well, complications. How'd you know we were here?"

"News travels fast. Not to mention the swarm out there," the Captain said, vaguely gesturing towards the doors through which he had come. Joe's eyebrows furrowed, and he frowned.

"Swarm?" he questioned. "There's people out there?" Singh nodded, this time actually grimacing.

"...yeah," he admitted. "And a hell of a lot of them. I wouldn't open that door anytime soon."

Joe sighed, looking more frazzled than David had ever seen him before, and ran a hand tiredly over his face.

"We have other ways of getting out," he said, waving a hand as if dismissing the issue. He supposed the detective did have bigger things to worry about at the moment. Barry's identity being exposed was something that could be worried about _after_ the man had healed.

"Can I see Barry?" Singh asked, his voice almost uncharacteristically gentle.

Joe seemed slightly hesitant, understandably so, but eventually nodded.

"Yeah," he said simply. "But I have to warn you, he doesn't look great," the man said seriously before turning around and heading back up the stairs. Singh sucked in a breath and followed behind him, paying attention to everything they passed. He had never actually been inside the place before.

Finally, Joe lead him into what looked like a more central room, filled with computer monitors and other expensive-looking equipment. Off to one side, there was a large, empty display case. All things considered, David figured it must have usually housed Barry's suit. It wasn't there now, however, and it was almost a sad sight. He could hear talking now as well, drifting from down the hallway, and he found the source of it as he followed Joe into a smaller room. A med bay, he realized, spotting the medical equipment and such scattered around. And, of course, the still form of Barry Allen lying in a bed not ten feet from him, looking decidedly _terrible._ Singh winced, louder than he intended, and suddenly he had multiple sets of eyes boring into him as quite literally everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"It's alright," Joe was quick to say. "False alarm, it was just Singh. I let him in." All the faces seemed to simultaneously shift to relieved as they realized that there was no threat. And, as Singh looked at them, he realized that he recognized at least two of the three. Among them was Cisco Ramon, a friend of Allen's who frequently helped the CCPD out with specialized weapons, and Caitlin Snow, whom Singh knew was also a good friend of the young CSI. The second girl, however, was unfamiliar but looked just as concerned as the others.

Singh made his way over to his young employee's bedside, frowning down at his pale form.

"Damn it, Allen," he muttered. "You always manage to get yourself into the worst trouble." He shook his head, running a hand through his hair. He looked up then, locking eyes with Caitlin; he knew she was a doctor of some sort, and had to be the one overseeing his care. "How long until he's up?"

The doctor frowned, biting at her lip. "I'm not sure," she admitted sullenly, awkwardly. She wasn't used to discussing such things with someone outside of their little team. "His injuries are one thing, with his healing on the fritz, but the illness has worsened exponentially."

Singh frowned again at the words. So he _was_ sick. And it was preventing him from getting better. Only Barry could manage to get himself into such a pickle. He opened his mouth to ask more, but Joe's voice cut off anything he would have said,

"Wait, Iris hasn't come back yet?" he asked, his voice suddenly sounding much more worried as he realized that his daughter still wasn't in the room. He had thought she would have calmed down somewhat by now. "Did anyone see where she went?"

"I think she headed out to the Cortex," Caitlin answered distractedly, checking over something with Barry. Cisco was frowning now too, however.

"Wait, where's Snart for that matter?"

Singh's eyebrows shot up. " _Snart_ was here?" he asked incredulously. The events from earlier came flooding back to him. Snart going off with the villains who had taken Barry in the first place. Joe pleading with him to let him go, to trust him.

"He helped get Barry back. Long story," Cisco answered, waving the Captain off. He understood, however. Now wasn't exactly the best time to get him up to speed. Joe suddenly looked sick to his stomach, and Singh watched as he shared a look with the other three occupants of the room.

"You don't think…" The blonde, unfamiliar one questioned. Cisco suddenly grabbed her by the arm.

"Felicity, help me look at the surveillance videos," he commanded, pulling her out of the room. Joe cast a quick look at Barry, torn between staying with him and going with the other two it appeared.

"Joe, go," Caitlin said. "I've got him." Joe nodded then and hurried from the room. Singh, slightly worried at the sudden change in focus and not quite wanting to be alone with Barry and the doctor, fled after them. Cisco and the girl, Felicity apparently, were already seated at the monitors, Joe standing behind them. Singh came up next to the detective.

"What is going on?" he asked, but he got no answer as the three of them poured over the footage until they seemed to find what they were looking for. On the screen appeared a video of Iris and Snart, and their conversation became clear as the mic was turned on. Singh watched as Joe's face paled, and Singh could see why he was worried. Cisco looked ready to turn the monitor off when suddenly a third figure appeared. His back was to the camera, his face not visible, but Singh could immediately tell who it was from the gear. The Green Arrow. And no one else seemed surprised to see him appear, only more worried as the conversation escalated. No one spoke until all three of the figures on the camera left the room, out of sight of the camera, though not before the Green Arrow grabbed a bag and what looked like a mask from the very desk they were sitting at. Singh dared to speak again.

" _What_ is going on?" he repeated with emphasis. "Since when was the Green Arrow involved in all of this?"

"He's always been," Joe answered darkly. "And he's gone and taken my daughter on a death mission. Felicity, can you track him? Please tell me you can track him."

"Normally, yes, but the son of a bitch stole my laptop," she answered frustratedly, gesturing wildly at the screen. "I am going to kill him."

"You and me both," Joe muttered, looking rather ashen.

"Joe, she's with Ol - Arrow. He'll keep her safe," Cisco said, barely keeping himself from saying Oliver's name in front of Singh; the half-slip didn't go unnoticed by him however, and he filed the information away. They knew who Star City's vigilante was. What else did they know?

"He better damn well," Joe growled.

"Wait - a metahuman caused Barry's illness?" Singh questioned, raising an eyebrow. Joe didn't answer, but Cisco nodded, his expression serious.

"Yeah. And if we get a sample of her blood, Cait can make an antidote. But we don't know who she is or where she is…which is what they went to go find out, apparently." Felicity suddenly looked almost offended.

"Are you serious?" she asked, looking over at Cisco. "Why didn't you tell me about this when we got here? Hello, facial recognition software?"

"That wasn't exactly our top priority when Barry was _kidnapped,_ Felicity," Cisco said pointedly. "And besides, the cameras never got a good look at her face. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this damn mess, and Iris wouldn't have gone off with Snart and Arrow."

"Well, show me anyways," the blonde said fiercely. "I refuse to be useless just because I don't have my laptop."

"Let me help too,' Singh piped up. Felicity, Joe and Cisco all swiveled their heads to look at him, and Singh sighed, making eye contact with Joe. "We'll get your daughter back, West," he added. "And fix Barry. I'm not going to be useless in this damn thing anymore, either."

David watched as the three exchanged looks before nodding.

"Alright, Captain," Cisco said, looking determined. "Let's get to work."

* * *

"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

Leonard Snart's voice was accusatory with a hint of amusement, as it seemed to be quite often. There was no amusement in Oliver's reply, only anger.

"I'm not Felicity. That doesn't mean I'm completely clueless as to how technology works," the vigilante snapped. Snart, Oliver and Iris were huddled around the laptop set on the table in front of them, Oliver's fingers tapping away at the keyboard. They had taken their operation away from STAR Labs so as not to be caught, and were currently holed up in the corner of a dive bar a few miles away. It wasn't the ideal place to set up, but it worked for now. Besides, a bar was the last place the others would try looking for them. Not to mention, it was easy to blend in the crowd. And with the majority of said crowd fairly drunk, they were hardpressed to recognize Snart for the villain he was, or Iris for being affiliated with the newly outed Barry Allen/The Flash. The only sounds for the next few seconds was the tapping of the keys, but as a video suddenly popped up on the screen, Oliver spoke again.

"There," he said triumphantly. "That's the video, right?" he asked, the question directed at Iris, who nodded.

"That's it," she confirmed, frowning a bit as she watched the events unfolding. It showed the fight from just a few days ago between Barry and the mystery meta, who had conveniently managed to hide her face very well from the camera. Her powers were rather impressive, though rather destructive, Iris noted as she watched Barry get assaulted by chunks of earth and rock, trying to dodge and take her down at the same time.

"Just because her face isn't clear doesn't mean we can't identify her," Oliver said, not peeling his eyes from the footage. He had learned some things about identification from Felicity over the years. "Just from this, we have her hair color, build, and approximate height, weight and age. Is there a way we can cross check that description with of people affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion?"

"There isn't exactly a convenient list of those affected," Iris said with a sigh.

"What about cross checking the description with hospital records?" Snart chimed in. "Weren't a lot of those affected hospitalized?"

Iris's face lit up a bit at that. "That's actually not a bad idea," she said. "Oliver, how good are your hacking abilities?"

"Not great," the vigilante admitted. "That's Felicity's strong suit. But I could try."

Snart rolled his eyes at that. "Give me," he said, reaching for the laptop and tugging it away from Oliver, who looked ready to protest. "I've done my fair share of hacking," he added before the other man could get a word out. "And worked with my fair share of good hackers before. Villain, remember?"

Oliver scowled a bit but didn't protest as Snart set to work, his fingers tapping away furiously. He didn't get the job done nearly as fast as Felicity would have, but within a few minutes, he smiled and turned the computer around.

"Two close matches from hospital records during the time of the explosion," he said. "Allison Smith and Kasey Stone."

Iris pulled the laptop closer to her, eyes narrowed as she looked at the two separate records. A small smile tugged at her lips after a few seconds.

"This one," she said, pointing to the first file. "Kasey Stone. That's got to be her. Medical Report says she was rock-climbing that night and got caught in a small avalanche caused by the explosion. It would make perfect sense, considering her powers."

Oliver nodded in agreement. "That sounds like our girl," he said. "Now we just have to figure out where she is."

"Well, can't we use Felicity's facial recognition software?" Iris asked. "Now that we know who she is."

Oliver nodded at that. "We should be able to, if any cameras have picked her up." The vigilante pulled the computer back over to him, opening the program and quickly starting up the program. Much to their surprise, there was a match within a minute.

"Security camera outside of a market on Oak Street caught her twenty minutes ago," Oliver said. "That's on the outskirts of the city. We can be there in a half hour tops."

Iris, for what felt like the first time in forever, grinned widely.

"Let's go catch us a meta."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So headcanon I guess that Snart actually has some hacking skills? I thought that would be pretty cool. Anyways, that's all for now. You'll get to see some action next chapter, and some more on Barry, since he wasn't talked about too much in this chapter. Until next time, guys!


	16. Rocky Situations

**Author's Note:** I am so, so sorry this chapter came late guys. I know I usually update after a week, but my life has been crazy busy lately. I intended to finish this and get it up on Monday like I usually do, but I also started a temporary job Monday that I am doing for about two weeks from 8:30 to 3:30. So it's been a hinderance, and afterwards I've honestly been so exhausted or had other things to work on, like Christmas gifts and other stuff. So, on top of the lateness, I apologize that this chapter is shorter than normal and doesn't include everything I wanted it to. I wanted to add some more in about Barry and his condition, and get more on what's happening with Iris and co, but if I tried to do that this chapter never would have came. I intend to make the next one better, and I will really try to get it out on time! But if not, you know why, if you read these notes at least. ALSO, I admit I had no energy to go through and proof read this. If you find any errors, once again I apologize. Anyways, this is getting long, so I'll leave it at that. Merry early Christmas to those who celebrate! Hope you enjoy your holiday and this chapter ;)

* * *

Despite doing her best to reign in her emotions, Caitlin was quite the worried wreck. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since Joe, Felicity, Cisco and Singh had gone off to the Cortex, and while every once in a while she could hear the murmurs of their talking, they still had not come back. She wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but it couldn't be good. And it left her all by herself with Barry.

It was better, she supposed, from a doctor standpoint at least, being able to keep an eye on him without anyone else hovering. But it also made her inexplicably nervous. With the others with her, at least she had support - now she was alone with her thoughts as Barry continued to lie still on the bed. With a sigh, she pulled the only chair in the room up to the speedster's bedside and sank into it, putting her head in her hands. When had their lives become so damn complicated, and dangerous for that matter? Things had been so much simpler in the beginning. After a few seconds, the doctor lifted her head - and nearly jumped as she got a good look at Barry.

His eyes were open. Barely, but it was enough.

"Barry?" she asked, jumping up immediately. She stood over him, eyebrows creased in concern as she looked down at his prone form. "Can you hear me?"

The speedster's eyes were foggy, dazed looking. Caitlin thought for sure that he couldn't possibly be aware, but then they moved the slightest bit, tracking her small movement and meeting her gaze.

"Cait?" he asked. His voice was rough and quiet, disbelieving. If Caitlin hadn't been listening for it, she might not have heard it at all.

"I'm here, Barry, it's okay - you're safe. You're back at STAR Labs. We're taking care of you."

It was easy to see that Barry didn't have much energy, that it was taking a lot of effort for him to be up, to talk. But she could see the moment his facial expression shifted from that of slight hope to miserable, almost crestfallen. His mouth opened again, and she leaned forward a bit to make sure she caught what he said next. The words broke her heart.

"You're not real," he murmured. Her own look of slight hope transformed as well, and she frowned.

"Barry, I'm real. This is real, I promise. You're safe." But Barry did not look convinced in the slightest.

"Not real," he murmured again, and then his eyes slid closed, his body quickly going limp once more.

"Barry? Barry, come on. Can you hear me?" Caitlin tried again, but it was clear that he was unconscious again. She felt hot tears pricking at her eyes, threatening to spill. He didn't believe that he was safe, and she had no idea why. It could have been one of many reasons - his concussion, his fever making him confused - even something that had been done to him. It could have been a mix of all three, for all she knew. Either way, it made Caitlin feel awful. She sank back into the chair and tried to hold herself together. She was the doctor, after all - the one responsible for him, for taking care of him. She couldn't let the others see her so weak. She couldn't break down.

She remained lost in her own thoughts for several more minutes, until she heard footsteps approaching. Her head snapped up in time to see Cisco jogging back into the med bay, an excited sort of look on his face that seemed rather out of place at a time like this. She supposed she was about to find out what it was about.

"Cait," he said with a smile. "We -" The engineer paused, his smile fading as he looked at her. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked, moving closer to her.

Caitlin cast a quick glance at Barry before taking a shaky breath, nodding. She didn't want to bring up what had happened with Barry - everyone was worried enough as it was.

"I'm fine, Cisco," she said, plastering on a small, probably pathetic-looking smile. Cisco looked very far for convinced, but could obviously see that she was not looking to open up about whatever it was at the moment.

"...okay. Well, uh, there's some good news, for once," he announced.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"Felicity managed to figure out who our mystery meta is. A girl named Kasey Stone. She's working on getting a location right now. Iris _did_ go off to try and find her, with Snart, and Oliver went with them."

"Seriously?" Caitlin asked, somewhat surprised. Iris going she could understand; Oliver had probably gone to keep Iris out of trouble. But Snart? Even after the fact that he had helped to get Barry back, it still seemed odd to her that he would continue to do so. Had he been promised something else?

Cisco nodded. "Yeah. Joe and Singh want to head out as soon as Felicity gets the location, try and get to her before they do. Joe doesn't want Iris in the line of fire, and they have a good headstart. I'm gonna go with them. Felicity's gonna stay here, keep an eye on how everything goes with the monitors. Be our eyes and ears," he said, and then paused for a moment. "...will you be alright here? Alone with him?" he asked, his voice soft.

Caitlin's eyes drifted over to Barry briefly, watching him, the incident from just a few minutes ago still stuck in her mind. In all honesty, the thought of being alone with him again made her nervous once more, despite knowing that Felicity would be just down the hall. Despite the fact that she was a doctor, damn it, and she should have been able to handle this better.

"Of course," she said, half of her hoping he would leave the matter be and the other half hoping that he would see through her lie and stay with her, keep her company. Cisco's look softened a bit.

"You know," he said, "You're his doctor, but you're also his friend. It's okay to worry. You don't have to be some emotionless robot over the whole thing. We get it, Cait." It was as if he had read her mind. She should have expected it, what with how long they had been friends. She offered him a small smile, one that this time wasn't entirely forced.

"Thanks, Cisco," she said softly, affectionately. "Now go find this meta. And be careful, damn it. I'm not having two friends laid up in here."

And Cisco gave her a small, amused smile in return. "I promise you won't."

* * *

Cisco felt rather guilty for leaving Caitlin alone with the fallen speedster. She was suffering just as much as the rest of them were, even if she wouldn't admit it, but there wasn't much of a choice. He was useless here; at least with Joe and Singh, he would be involved. He was determined to catch this meta girl and cure Barry, no matter what. Cait would have to be fine; he knew that she was strong, that she would watch over their friend until they got back. When he walked back into the Cortex, it was to find Felicity beaming proudly at the computer monitor she was still seated at.

"I'm hoping that smile means some more good news," the engineer spoke as he approached. She turned her head to look at him, nodding.

"I got a general location," she announced triumphantly. "A security camera picked her up outside of a market on the edge of the city, less than an hour ago. She was on foot, and it didn't show her getting into any vehicle. Judging by that, she can't be more than, like, a five mile radius from that spot. I've pinpointed a few possible hide-outs, and already sent those to your phones," she added, gesturing vaguely at Joe, Singh and himself.

Cisco pulled his cell from his pocket and chuckled a bit as he saw that she was right; Felicity was always thorough, and it really came in handy during a time like this.

"I don't know what we'd do without you, Felicity," he said with a smile.

"Damn right you don't," she replied, smiling lightly back.

Joe looked up with a hard look on his face, looking between Singh and Cisco.

"You both ready?"

Singh nodded, and Cisco did the same.

"Ready," he assured. "Let's go kick some ass."

* * *

"You know, there are a lot of damn abandoned places in Central City," Oliver remarked as the three of them walked into the third empty house they had sought out; Iris only shrugged.

"A lot of people up and left after the Particle Accelerator exploded and all of the metas started crawling out of the woodwork," she explained. "It's not that uncommon to find abandoned buildings nowadays."

"Would the two of you lower your voices? You're not being very stealthy right now," Snart remarked, but he quickly backed off after receiving a death glare from both Iris and Oliver; they were all quiet afterwards, however.

It was another minute of creeping through the house before Oliver suddenly stopped short, frozen in place.

"I heard something," he announced in almost a whisper, ears perked, listening for any other accompanying noises; a dull thud sounded throughout the house seconds later, and it was clear that they had all heard it that time.

"Basement?" Snart asked, raising an eyebrow.

Iris sighed. "It always has to be the basement. This feels like a horror movie." But she crept forward alone with the two boys once more; she would not be thrown from the mission so easily. It didn't take long for them to find the door that lead down to the basement, and throw it open. The three unlikely teammates gave each other looks before descending in a line down the stairs, not bothering much for stealth anymore. Once they reached the bottom, they would be exposed.

As they stepped off the last stair, Iris could make out shapes from the dim light coming in from the one dusty window in the place. There wasn't much to see: an old sofa off in a corner, what looked like a rolled up rug a few feet from it; a broken table with only three legs awkwardly in the middle of the room. None of that mattered, however, when her eyes landed on the lone figure sitting against the wall, small rocks floating and circling above her hand like magic. This was definitely the girl they had been looking for. Her head snapped up as they all fumbled down the stairs, the pebbles falling to the concrete floor as she jumped up.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, eyes flicking between the three of them with what looked like a mix between wariness and annoyance; Iris scowled at her.

"My friend is dying because of you," she ground out, fists clenched.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the girl - Kasey, Iris remembered - snapped. "You all need to leave, now." Her own fists were clenched, and Iris could see the stones on the floor shaking, reacting. They weren't too big, but she gathered they could still do damage, if thrown with enough force. Behind her, Iris could hear Oliver drawing his bow, Snart shuffling into a fighting stance.

"We're not going anywhere," she said, her voice fierce. "We need you to cure the Flash."

For a moment, Kasey seemed taken by surprise. Then her face darkened.

"The Flash?" she growled. "This is about that stupid vigilante that attacked me? I say let him die."

"Not gonna happen, sweetheart." The voice was Oliver's deep one this time as he knocked an arrow in his bow.

"Try me."

The meta raised her arms.

Behind Iris, the window shattered.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Semi-cliffhanger I guess? I'm gonna try to get the next chapter up on time guys! And make it longer! Hope you enjoyed this anyways. Until next time!


	17. Stoned

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! Sorry again that I definitely did not get this up as quick as I wanted to, but it is what it is I supposed. The action I promised is in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! Also, just a quick PSA for anyone wondering: I have not forgotten about Shawna; she is not just abandoned and forgotten down in the Pipeline. You will see her again soon! Anyways, hope you like this chapter guys! This should be wrapping up somewhat soon? I will definitely miss writing it when it's over!

* * *

Sometimes, Iris really longed for the simplicity of her old life, before the Particle Accelerator exploded, before metahumans and the constant risking of their lives. This moment, as glass rained down around her and she saw the size of the rocks flying through the remains of the shattered window, was one of those times.

"Duck!" she yelled out, quite unnecessarily as Snart and Oliver moved quickly on their own out of the path of the projectiles. She dove to the right, narrowly avoiding a rock the size of her head. When she stood up again, her eyes drifted immediately back over to the angry meta girl, who now had multiple large rocks circling around her. Where all of them had come from, Iris had no idea, but it definitely spelled trouble for them.

"Last chance to leave," Stone growled angrily, eyes narrowed as Snart and Oliver also recovered and stood.

The three of them stood their ground.

"Okay, your funerals," the meta said coldly.

And that was the only warning they got before all hell broke loose.

The words had barely left the metahuman's mouth before the same large stone that Iris had barely avoided seconds ago was flung forward with startling force, barreling straight for Oliver. The vigilante twisted away at the last second, the projectile crashing into the wall rather then hitting him. He knocked an arrow and sent it flying towards the girl, who merely moved a rock in front of her for protection; the arrow bounced off harmlessly.

"Hmm, nice try," she said with a smirk, and suddenly the same rock she had used to protect herself was flung towards Snart, the one that had nearly hit Oliver floating back up from where it had crashed and circling back as well. Iris watched with wide eyes as Snart cursed and jumped out of the way of the object attempting to crush him, knocking into Oliver in the process and knocking the archer off his balance. The Green Arrow also cursed as he was knocked to the floor. With a frustrated yell, Iris flung herself at the source of the problem as Snart and Oliver attempted to disentangle themselves and stand again. She didn't make it very far.

"Don't think so," Stone hissed, and the journalist suddenly found herself quite literally in between a rock and a hard place. Unable to jump out of the way quick enough, she was thrown against the cement wall by one of the bigger rocks, letting out a yelp of pain as one of her ribs cracked; that definitely wasn't good. She sank to her knees on the floor, clutching at her chest with a pained look on her face. Kasey smirked - but it quickly fell from her face as she found an arrow lodged in her shoulder. The meta girl let out a shriek, stumbling backwards and barely managing to avoid the next one that came sailing her way. The rocks floating around her seemed to falter, losing altitude as her focus momentarily broke. It took her only seconds, however, to recover enough to send the largest in her arsenal flying right into Oliver, hitting the vigilante dead on. He was sent several feet backwards, falling on his back with a grunt.

Iris could see Snart freeze momentarily where he was standing, looking quickly back and forth between Oliver lying either stunned or unconscious on the floor and herself, clutching at her chest and struggling to stand. The journalist was sure he was regretting his choice to come with them, or at the very least wishing he had been able to grab his cold gun; it would have given their plans away to the others, however, if he had attempted to grab it. Kasey's hard eyes locked hungrily on the thief, seeing that he was the only one on his feet; Snart had only seconds to jump out of the way of not one but two large stones that were flung in his direction, attempting to lunge at her after the barrage. The meta girl simply called all of her projectiles back, forming a shield around herself.

"Too easy," she said with a laugh before sending all of them out at once. This time Snart wasn't spared, and fell very close to where Oliver was just starting to sit up.

Iris's heart thudded painfully against her chest, making the already terrible aching from her injury worse. She silently urged Oliver to get up faster as the meta's eyes flitted over to her again. She gritted her teeth, pulling herself to her feet through the pain and preparing herself for another attack - that didn't come.

"Freeze! CCPD!" The voice and footsteps that echoed through the room were enough to startle both Iris and the meta, heads whipping towards the stairs in time to see three figures practically jumping off the last step. Iris immediately identified them as none other than her father, Cisco, and Captain Singh. And while a part of her recognized the fact that she definitely in for a stern lecture from her father now that he had found her, the other part was quite grateful to see him, as well as the other two men. The detective and police captain both had guns pointed at Stone, and Cisco was holding the gun that would deploy the latest version of the Boot. The angry metahuman scowled at the three, clearly not pleased.

"Drop the rocks!" Singh yelled out, eyes locked on the threat.

"Gladly," the meta girl spat, and made a show of shifting the rocks above her before flinging them towards the newcomers. All of them, Iris noted thankfully, were quick to dodge out of the way and avoid injury, unlike the rest of them. Kasey, unrelentless, looked ready for more - until three arrows suddenly lodged themselves in her flesh, one in either shoulder and one sticking out of her abdomen. The meta cried out in agony, all projectiles dropping to the ground as she dropped to her knees. Iris turned her head to the left to see that Oliver had finally gotten himself up off the floor, his bow drawn and pointed directly at their foe.

"Game over," he growled. The girl tried weakly to stand, but Cisco was quick to step in, aiming his gun and shooting; the Boot latched perfectly around her ankle, tethering her to the cement and emitting an electric shock that sent her sprawling to the floor with a groan.

For a moment after, no one moved, everyone seeming to take in exactly what had just happened. Joe was the first to do something. The detective moved towards Iris with a frown and a look of concern written clearly across his face.

"Are you okay baby?" he asked, having noticed her expression and the way she was holding her chest. Iris nodded.

"Broken rib, I think. Nothing major," she said, trying for a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Nothing major my ass," her father replied. "Caitlin's looking at that when we get back. And we are not done talking about this," he added, giving her a stern look before making his way over to the fallen meta. Cisco was already in the process of putting the power-dampening cuffs around her wrists while she was incapacitated, Singh overseeing the process with his gun still pointed at the girl - just in case. Though it didn't look like she would be trying anything else again anytime soon. With a sigh, Iris slowly walked over to where everyone else was gathered, giving Oliver a quick once-over.

"Nicely done," she told the archer with approval; Oliver simply nodded once in return to acknowledge her, his eyes locked firmly on what was happening with the metahuman in front of them. Her eyes next turned to Snart, who was cradling his left arm against his chest.

"Broken?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Snart shrugged using the arm that didn't appear useless.

"Probably. I've had worse," he said, sounding rather indifferent to the injury. She remembered Barry telling her once that Snart's father had been abusive; she turned her eyes away from him and tried not to think about it.

"I can take her to Iron Heights," Singh spoke up as Cisco finished securing the cuffs. "You all should head back to STAR, deal with Barry."

Joe shot his boss an appreciative look. "Thank you, David," he said sincerely; Singh gave a brief nod in response as Oliver had. "But first…"

The detective fished around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a small syringe, crouching down beside the half-conscious girl. There was no hesitation as he uncapped it and slid it into the first vein he could find in her arm, pushing the plunger down until it was filled with blood. No one questioned what he was doing; they all knew very well. Though, Iris felt slightly abashed that she had not thought to bring one herself. It didn't matter, however; the deed was done, and everyone looked rather relieved at the prospect.

Iris gave a genuine smile for the first time in several days.

"Let's go fix Barry."

* * *

As she sat there keeping an extremely watchful eye on Barry, Caitlin had not thought to keep track of exactly how long the others had been gone. But every second that went by in their absence seemed to bring the doctor more and more anxiety. So when Felicity suddenly came hurrying into the med bay with a large smile on her face, it was a huge relief. Caitlin stood immediately, wringing her hands together despite the fact that everything had evidently gone okay.

"They got the blood sample," the blonde announced enthusiastically. "And have the meta in custody. Singh is bringing her to Iron Heights, the rest are on their way back."

Caitlin couldn't help the smile that started to spread across her own face at the news; the first good news in days.

"And they're all okay?" she asked.

"No serious injuries," Felicity assured. "It sounds like Iris might have broken a rib and Snart probably broke his arm. Oliver insisted he was fine, but he's definitely getting checked out," she added sternly. "Cisco, Joe and Singh are fine."

Caitlin felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"That's great," she said.

Felicity glanced over at Barry, who was still lying unmoving and pale on the bed.

"How's he holding up?" she asked; some of the weight found its way back to Caitlin's shoulders, and her smile fell.

"Not great," she said. "His fever's gone up a degree just since they've left. But once I get my hands on the blood sample they're bringing back, and should be able to have a cure whipped up quickly."

The doctor looked over at Barry herself, her stomach twisting a bit as she thought of the earlier incident between them, when he had been lucid for a few seconds. She moved a little closer to his bedside, her hand gently moving a stray piece of hair out of his face. Felicity had evidently noticed the mood change.

"He'll be fine, then," she said. "So what's bothering you?" The hacker's voice was prodding in a caring way, her tone gentle. Caitlin closed her eyes momentarily, letting out a sigh; she didn't answer right away.

"It's just - earlier, Barry woke up," she said finally, and Felicity's eyebrows shot up.

"And?"

Caitlin bit her lip. "It was just for a few seconds," she said softly. "But he saw me, and - he thought I wasn't real," she admitted. "Like he thought I was a hallucination or something, or he was crazy. And I want to just attribute it to his fever, but I don't know. What if he's traumatized? Or brain damaged, or something? I can't do a CAT Scan here, and we can't exactly move him because his identity is out in the in the open and there's a freaking _mob_ surrounding the place and I -"

"Caitlin!" Felicity interrupted, placing her hands firmly on the other woman's shoulders. "Breathe, girl."

Caitlin paused in her babbling, taking a moment to do as Felicity had instructed and take a deep breathe.

"You," the hacker continued, "Are an amazing doctor. If something is wrong with Barry, I have faith that you'll figure it out. And you're not in this alone, okay? We're all here. And we may not have Ph. D's, but that sure as hell doesn't mean we're not going to help."

Caitlin forced herself to take another deep breath and nodded, some of the tension evidently leaving her body.

"Thanks, Felicity," she said, her voice slightly shaky but a small smile making its way back onto her face.

"Any time."

The two might have shared more words, but the moment was declared over by the sound of footsteps and multiple voices reaching them from down the hallway.

The others were back.

* * *

You are hereby spared of a terrible cliffhanger. You're welcome. Hope you all liked the chapter! Until next time guys!


	18. The Road To Healing

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! I am so, so, so sorry this chapter took so long! It's been far too much time since my last update. I swear I would have gotten it up so much sooner, but after my recovery from bronchitis, I pretty much was immediately saddled with extremely bad ear infections in both ears. The pain was really bad, and there was no way I was going to be able to write. On top of that, I started college up again on Tuesday, so that also hindered the production. Thankfully, however, my ears are much better now and it's Friday! Hallelujah! I swear the next chapter will be up much sooner than this one was. The action has died down at this point, so there's not too much excitement in this chapter, but things will still be a little heated as Barry begins to heal and deal with his exposed identity. Anyways, hope you enjoy it!

* * *

The way Caitlin and Felicity both darted out of the med bay in unison might have been funny under other circumstances. As things were now, the pair was just eager to see their friends, and to get this entire nightmare over with. As they both watched, the other filed in as a pack. Iris was sticking close to Joe, appearing to lean on him slightly. It made sense, Caitlin figured, if she did in fact have a broken rib. Snart was hugging one arm close to his chest with the other, and Oliver seemed to be limping lightly, though looked as if he were trying to hide it. Typical. Thankfully, as Felicity had said, Joe and Cisco looked perfectly fine. Though she would have to look at the other three as soon as she dealt with Barry.

"Oh thank God," the doctor heard Felicity say as she laid eyes on all of them. The blonde immediately went to hug Oliver, who grunted but allowed the contact; she then smacked his arm, despite his potential injuries. "I'm going to kill you later," she said seriously as she lead him over to a chair. Caitlin made her way over to the other five, giving Snart and Iris a quick once-over with her eyes to make sure there weren't any immediate concerns she needed to take care of. While she was itching to help Iris at least, Barry was in more urgent need of her assistance; they had all put themselves at risk to help him.

"You got the sample?" she asked immediately, and Joe nodded, pulling a blood-filled syringe from his jacket pocket. She took it gratefully, palming it carefully.

"So how is this going to work?" Iris asked, and Caitlin could detect the pain seeping into her voice. The doctor grimaced, giving her a somewhat apologetic look; she would examine her first after she had dealt with the speedster.

"By looking at her blood and the unique makeup of the structure, I should be able to isolate the anomaly attacking Barry's own structure. And once I do that -" Caitlin paused, noticing the way they all seemed to be looking rather uncomprehendingly at her. "You know what? I'm just going to do it. Just trust me, it'll work." There were nods all around.

"And I'm looking at all of you once I'm done," she added sternly as she turned around, walking at a brisk pace back into the med bay where Barry was. She spared a quick look at his prone form. "Hang in there, Barry. Everything's going to be alright," she said softly, and immediately set to work.

* * *

The waiting was agony for Iris. When she had been out with Snart and Oliver searching for and fighting the metahuman, it had been a distraction: a way to feel like she was actually helping. Now that that was done, and all she could do was sit and wait, she felt utterly useless again. Not to mention the fact that her chest still hurt like hell, and her father had already tried to give her a heated lecture twice in the hour or so since they had been back. She had long since retreated to the med bay to sit by Barry and watch Caitlin work, while the others waited together out in the Cortex. But she was getting antsy. She did not, however, have the nerve to speak up and ask when she would be finished. The doctor was clearly concentrating hard on what she was doing, and Iris didn't have it in her to interrupt - not when what she was doing was so important. And so she held the speedster's hand and waited quietly, keeping an eye on his vitals as Caitlin continued to focus on the cure.

After a few more minutes, and what seemed like forever, Caitlin finally turned around with a smile on her face.

"Done," she announced proudly, and Iris immediately jumped up at the words, approaching her.

"Really?" she asked hopefully, getting a good look at the vial of blue-colored liquid the doctor was holding in her hand; Caitlin nodded, grabbing a syringe from a nearby drawer and very meticulously transferring the contents into it.

"Really," she said in response, and Iris smiled widely.

"So you just have to inject him with that? And he'll start to get better?"

"He should," Caitlin replied, and walked quickly over to Barry's bedside. She grabbed his arm and lifted it; it didn't take long to find a vein that would work, and the doctor wasted no time pushing the needle into it and pushing down the plunger until all of the liquid had been emptied into the speedster's bloodstream.

"How long will it take to work?" Iris asked anxiously, making her own way back over to the bed and placing a gentle hand over Barry's still one. She had almost expected immediate results, for him to open his eyes and look at her and smile and just tell her that _everything was okay._ Of course, that was unrealistic; he remained limp and unresponsive. Caitlin's expression took on an unsure look.

"I can't say for sure," she admitted. "It should hopefully start working right away to rebalance everything in his system, but it could still be a little while before it starts to show. He may still be out of it for a while," she said apologetically. Iris sighed, and winced a bit at the pain the action caused; Caitlin frowned.

"Sit down," she said automatically, motioning to the chair the journalist had vacated only a minute ago. "I need to check out your ribs."

Iris shook her head.

"We should grab my dad and the others, tell them that you finished the cure. And besides, Barry's still more important to focus on -"

"Iris," Caitlin interrupted, a stern look on her face. "We can grab them in a few minutes; I need to look them over anyways. And there's nothing else to do for Barry right now. Sit," she commanded, and Iris relented, easing herself back into the chair. She had learned by now that when Caitlin's voice took on that tone, she meant business, and would not give in easily.

"Shirt off," the doctor instructed.

In the past, Iris might have blanched at the request. With all of the trouble she got into with Central City's resident evil metahumans, however, she was more used to this than she probably should have been. She sighed and obliged, carefully removing the article of clothing, leaving her in her bra. Caitlin started to poke and prod at clearly bruised area, but despite the pain it caused, Iris wasn't focused on it. She was looking over at Barry once again.

"Cait?" she asked after a moment, in a voice softer than usual. "He - he is going to be okay, right?"

Caitlin paused a moment in her exam. "I already told you -"

Iris cut her off.

"No, I don't mean it like that. I mean - God, everyone knows he's the Flash," she said. "I just - I can't imagine how he's going to take that. He's worked so hard to keep it a secret. Not just to protect the people he cares about, but to be able to have at least a somewhat normal life outside of all of the heroics. That's all gone now."

Caitlin's poking and prodding started up again, but Iris could see the small frown that now graced her features as she slowly turned her head to look at the other woman. She was silent a moment before saying anything back.

"He's not going to like it," she said. "It's - it will be a big adjustment. But I have faith that Barry will be able to handle it, you know? There are worse things in the world. I'm not saying it's good, but he has us. We'll all be there for him."

Iris nodded slowly; Caitlin was right, she knew. It was going to be a _huge_ adjustment for him. But he wouldn't be going through it alone. She sighed slightly again, and this time attempted to change the subject as she spoke.

"What's my prognosis?" she asked, managing a small, tight smile, which Caitlin returned.

"Hard to be 100% accurate without an X-Ray machine here, but I'd say it's a fractured rib," she said. "Probably hurts like hell, but not much you can do for it treatment wise. Ice pack and pain meds are gonna be the way to go," she replied. Iris nodded again, and took her shirt back as Caitlin held it out to her, sliding it carefully back on.

"I'm gonna go grab the others so I can take a look at them and fill them in," the doctor then informed the journalist, giving her a small pat on the shoulder. Iris nodded and gave her a soft smile as she turned to leave, placing her hand gently back over Barry's. All she could do now was wait.

* * *

Over the next two hours, Iris watched as Caitlin examined each and every person who had gone to deal with the angry metahuman. Snart had ended up in a cast after the doctor of the group had reset the confirmed broken bone; Oliver, much to Felicity's relief, had only ended up with a few nasty bruises and a dislocated shoulder, which Caitlin had easily popped back into place and instructed him firmly to ice. Now, however, despite everyone having been gathered in the small room not long ago, Iris found herself alone once again with only Caitlin and Barry.

Satisfied that Barry would be okay, Oliver and Felicity had packed up and headed back to Starling with the promise to return if anything got out of hand, and the demand that they be kept in the loop. Snart had slipped away rather quietly after his injury had been dealt with, returning to wherever it was he had been hiding out before all the chaos had started. Her father and Cisco had gone downstairs to keep tabs on the ever-increasing number of people outside of the compound, and to try and figure out a way to either control it or disperse the crowd. It seemed almost too quiet now after the dispersal of friends and family, the only noise in the room the sound of Caitlin rummaging through supplies and Barry's rhythmic breathing.

Though Caitlin had already explained to her that it would take time for Barry to start to heal even with the cure administered, Iris still had a pit in her stomach that seemed to grow with every minute that passed. She was worried, and justly so, even with the small signs of improvement in his health: the patches of color that seemed to be returning to his pale pallor, the slow but sure descent of his high fever. But she knew that she wasn't going to be satisfied until he was awake and coherent, reassuring her that he was fine like he always did when his well being was threatened. Usually, it pissed her off, him sitting in bed getting stitched up or bandaged or whatever else while he gave that sheepish smile and tried to tell her everything was okay when it clearly wasn't. Now, however, she found herself longing for it. Caitlin turned around then, catching the other woman staring at the unconscious man once again.

"Iris. Give it time," she said, voice gentle. Iris ran a hand through her hair, turning her head away from Barry to look tiredly at Cait.

"I know," she replied, voice also gentle; Caitlin gave her a sympathetic look.

"I'm gonna go see how Cisco and your dad are holding up downstairs. Hopefully the mob didn't get them," she said, attempting a lighthearted joke which Iris briefly smiled at. "I'll be back in a few minutes. If anything happens, come get me."

"Of course," Iris said with a nod. Caitlin turned then and left the room, moving quickly. Iris watched her go until the woman was out of sight, then immediately turned her attention back to Barry with a sigh. She ran her thumb gently over his hand, smiling sadly at him.

"You're gonna be alright, Bar," she said, her voice still soft. "Everything's gonna be alright. You're strong." Iris found her eyes watering a bit and mentally cursed herself; crying wasn't going to help anything, damn it. She squeezed them shut tightly, trying to keep herself composed. It was then that she heard the voice: raspy, weak, but clear in the quiet room.

"Iris?"

Her eyes snapped open and met with Barry's.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hope this was worth the long wait for you guys! Again, sorry about that! Until next time!


	19. Residuum

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, I'm back! I'm proud of myself; I actually managed to get this one up in a week, and I haven't been able to do that for the last few haha. Barry will be having to deal with his secret identity being out soon, and cope with what's happened. Anyways, hope you all enjoy the chapter!

* * *

As soon as Iris realized that Barry's eyes were open, her own eyes widened a bit in surprise. Yes, she had been hoping for this, but now that it had suddenly happened she was taken a bit off guard. Her initial reaction was to want to pull him into a tight hug, but she recognized that that wasn't exactly the best idea at the moment, considering his injuries.

" _Barry,_ " she got out finally, relief evident in her voice. She grasped her hand in his gently, slowly, not wanting to startle him as he adjusted to his surroundings. "Hey, I'm here, you're okay. How do you feel?"

He looked at her dazedly for several moments, and Iris felt her anxiety creeping back up; he still didn't appear completely with it.

"Hot," he murmured finally, his voice quiet. "Tired." As she watched, his eyelids slowly starred to droop, and her heart beat sped up.

"Hey, come on, stay awake," she said, reaching out to pat his face lightly. In all honesty, she probably should have let him rest longer; he had been through a lot. But the thought of him slipping into unconsciousness again for God-knew-how-long scared her. She also knew that she needed to get Caitlin, but the thought of leaving him alone gave off that same spark of fear. Barry groaned lightly, weakly attempting to move his head away, but giving up as Iris continued to pat him persistently. The speedster looked at her again, his mouth set into a small frown and his eyebrows furrowed.

"What...happened?" he mumbled slowly, confusedly, his voice still quiet. "Everything hurts."

Iris smiled sadly at him, moving her hand away from his face to grasp his own hand again.

"I know, Bar," she said gently. "I know. You're gonna be okay soon, alright?" The speedster attempted a nod and winced, his face scrunching up. Iris squeezed his hand carefully, attempting to provide him some comfort. She glanced towards the door quickly as well, hoping to see Caitlin coming back, but the hall outside was empty. She had said she would be back soon, but now she was wishing the doctor hadn't left. Resisting the urge to bite at her lip, she turned her head back to look at Barry, who was cautiously examining the bandages wrapped around his shoulder. He still appeared slightly dazed, but at least he wasn't trying to close his eyes again.

"Barry," Iris said, still keeping her voice soft and gentle. The speedster's eyes moved slowly to meet hers again. "Listen, I need to go get Caitlin, alright? But I'll be _right_ back. I promise. Just...stay awake, okay?" She paused, waiting for an answer.

"...okay," he said after a few seconds.

Only somewhat reassured, she debated not going. But she knew she could be quick, and she really did want Caitlin to look at him while he was up and for the most part coherent. She patted his hand gently before standing quickly from her chair and practically running from the room, opting to go for the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator. When she made it downstairs a minute or two later and into the lobby by the front entrance, it was to see Caitlin, Cisco and her father in a group talking a few feet away from the door. Talking and other various noises could clearly be heard from outside, indicating the people just beyond the walls of the complex, but Iris blocked it all out.

"Caitlin," she said urgently as she approached, drawing the attention of not just the doctor but all three of them, who all turned to face her. Caitlin's face immediately set into a frown, her eyes betraying worry at the sight of her.

"Did something happen?" she asked immediately, looking ready to run back upstairs at a moment's notice.

"He's awake," Iris breathed, trying to ignore the aching in her chest from her sudden fast movement. "And he seems kind of confused." It was all she needed to say; Caitlin immediately started for the stairs Iris had just come down. She shared a quick look with Cisco and her father before heading after her, trailed by both men. Despite the doctor having a slight head start, the three of them quickly caught up, Joe and Cisco eager to see Barry up and Iris itching to get back to him. When they all arrived back at the med bay, Iris expected to see the speedster just as she had left him. She wasn't sure if it should have been a happy or worrisome moment when the four of them spilled into the room to see him seeming much more alert, judging by the fact that he was attempting to get out of bed.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Caitlin was quick to protest, rushing forward to gently but firmly push him back down into a lying position. "Absolutely not!" Barry winced slightly, though Iris couldn't be sure if it was from the sudden loudness of Caitlin's voice in the previous quiet, or from her touch.

As Iris watched, Caitlin acted quickly, speed walking over to the medical cart set up in the corner and grabbing several items off of it. There was no time for Barry to say or do anything before suddenly a thermometer was shoved into his mouth and a penlight was being shined into his eyes. The speedster, looking quite overwhelmed, squinted against the brightness, shrinking away at the eager doctor's attention. Caitlin pulled away slowly as she noticed that he seemed uncomfortable with the sudden intrusions.

"Sorry Barry," she apologized quickly, turning off the penlight and pulling the thermometer out of his mouth. She checked it quickly and, appearing somewhat satisfied with the results, placed it back on the medical cart. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck," the speedster replied groggily, grimacing.

"And that is exactly why you are not to get up yet, under an circumstances," Caitlin said sternly, crossing her arms. "You need to take it easy." Barry nodded the best he could while laying down, and without stressing his pain farther, almost imperceptibly. Iris stepped forward then, making her way back over to him and sitting down once more in the chair by his bedside. She took his hand gently again, and he turned his head carefully to look at her. He still didn't look great, but she felt somewhat relieved to see that he was at least more aware.

"Bar," she said softly. "Hey, do you - do you remember what happened?" she asked hesitantly. He didn't answer right away, but the way that his body tensed was enough to tell Iris that _something_ had definitely come back to him. She tightened her grip on his hand.

"Yeah," he answered finally, simply. Iris bit her lip then, casting a look at the other three people in the room. Just because he remembered, didn't necessarily mean he knew everything that went on. Specifically the fact that his superhero identity was out; he hadn't exactly appeared in a conscious state during the time that the live video was released. The others seemed to understand what her look was about, as they appeared equally nervous to broach the subject. It was her father who finally spoke up after taking a deep breath.

"Bar, listen. I don't know if you know, but there was a video feed -"

"I know," Barry replied flatly, cutting the detective off; Iris felt a pang in her chest.

"Hey, man, we'll work it out," Cisco said, attempting to be reassuring, and Caitlin nodded.

"It's not the greatest situation, but we'll get through it, as a team," she contributed with a tiny smile. "We'll figure out how to address it and what to do going forward. But right now, I don't want you to focus on that too much; you need to focus on getting better." Barry sighed but managed another small nod. He was clearly, and rightly so, not at all happy with the situation. But he didn't have the energy at the moment to argue, or to put too much effort into worrying.

"Okay," he said. There was a lull in the conversation for a few seconds before Barry continued with slight hesitance, "...what happened to them?"

No one needed clarification to know that the 'them' he was referring to were his captors. Iris ran her thumb gently over the surface of his hand.

"Bivolo and Bliss got away," she said, her tone regretful. "Clay and Tell got arrested. Shawna's back in the pipeline for now, and Mardon's...dead."

Barry's eyebrows furrowed at the news. "Dead?" he asked, clearly surprised. "What...how did he die? What happened?"

"Snart turned him into a popsicle," Cisco chimed in, and Barry's eyes widened.

"Snart," he echoed. "Why - why was he there?" he asked, seeming to recall the incident with the villain. Iris sighed.

"We asked him for his help, when you got taken," she responded. "It was before Oliver and Felicity showed up, and we - well, we were desperate," she admitted. "He's gone now, though."

She left out the fact that Snart had wanted a favor out of the deal, that Barry supposedly owed him now. She didn't want to give him anything else to worry about now, and knowing him, he would probably deduce it on his own anyways. She also decided not to mention the galavant he had participated in with herself and Oliver in order to get the cure; he would definitely not be happy that she had put herself in harm's way for him. The speedster took a moment to process the new information. "Oliver and Felicity left too, but we promised to keep them updated."

Barry's eyebrows furrowed again. "They were here?" he asked, and Iris internally chastised herself; of course he wouldn't have known that. The only time the two of them had had any interaction with him, he had been unconscious.

"Yeah," she replied. "They helped too." The journalist could almost see the speedster make a mental note of that fact, and was sure that when he was feeling better, he would end up in Star City to thank them; that was just how he was. She watched as he seemed to take a moment to process all of the new information. The words that next came out of his mouth, however, were not in the least what she expected.

"I want to talk to Shawna," he said.

Iris frowned at that, her face morphing to show confusion; maybe he still _wasn't_ in his right mind.

"Bar, that's not a good idea," Caitlin said, also frowning.

"She tried to kill you," Joe said, arms crossed, his voice hard.

"But she didn't," he said quietly, and no one could argue with him about that. Despite the fact that she had caused what had happened, she hadn't in fact been the one who wanted him dead.

Joe pursed his lips together. "But her actions almost _got_ you killed," he said harshly. "Absolutely not." The detective stalked out of the room before anything else could be said, and Barry frowned; Iris knew he hated being told he couldn't do something when he set his mind to it, and he had now been told that he could 'absolutely not' do something twice in the few minutes since he had been up. It was a blow to him, especially after he most likely already felt downhearted after everything that had happened to him.

"He's just being protective; you know how he is," Iris said after she watched her father leave, giving Barry a soft smile. "But Bar - why would you want to talk to her? After what she did?" she asked. Just as her father, she didn't understand either, and was also rather against it. Judging by the looks on Caitlin and Cisco's faces, they didn't felt the same. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him so.

"I just want to, alright?" Barry answered vaguely, closing his eyes tiredly. Iris bit her lip, opening her mouth briefly like she wanted to say something more but deciding against it. She simply sighed quietly.

"Get some rest, Barry," Caitlin said gently from behind the journalist, moving forward then to adjust his blankets and run her eyes quickly over his bandages and stitches like a doting mother. She then motioned to both Cisco and Iris to step out into the hallway with her. Iris cast a quick look at Barry as she stood, but he seemed to be asleep already. She got up and followed Cisco and Cait out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

"I agree with Joe; I don't think it's a good idea for him to talk to her," the doctor said as soon as both Iris and Cisco were looking at her.

"Why would he even want to?" Cisco asked, looking to Iris for an answer. Iris sighed again, running a hand through her hair.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But I mean, for the past two days, I think he's really felt like everything is out of his hands, like he doesn't have control over anything that's happening to him. Maybe he thinks this will help, or something. But I don't like the idea either."

Caitlin ran a hand tiredly over her face, sighing herself now, and Iris looked at her with pity.

"You need some sleep," she said, but Caitlin shook her head.

"I need to keep an eye on him," she said; Cisco crossed his arms.

"Girl, the last time you got any shuteye was before Barry was taken," he said, and Caitlin frowned; she hadn't thought about it really, but Cisco was right. She had tried to sleep in the early morning yesterday, but then the alert had gone off signifying Mardon, Bliss and Tell breaking out of prison.

"We can keep an eye on him," Iris insisted. "And if anything happens, we'll wake you. But you need rest just as much as Barry does.

"Fine," Caitlin relented. "But only for a little while. And we still need to talk about this more later. And what we're going to do about this whole secret identity crisis."

Iris nodded. "We will," she said. "But for now, sleep." Caitlin nodded as well and gave her an appreciative look before heading down the hallway, presumably to a spare, quiet room. Iris and Cisco spared another glance at each other before heading back into the room.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** That's it for now guys! Until next time :)


	20. Absolution

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry this took more than a week to upload: I've been crazy busy studying! I had a bio exam yesterday, and a health exam today! But here's the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy! It's a few hundred words longer than it's been in a while :)

* * *

Though Barry's healing abilities still had not yet returned fullforce, the next two days of rest and near-constant supervision from Caitlin proved to be very beneficial; while not yet back to one hundred percent, it was clear - and a relief - to everyone that he was doing much better. His temperature was nearly back to normal, his wounds were on the mend, and while he had had a couple of power outbursts even after being given Caitlin's cure, they were now few and far between. He was getting better. Unfortunately for Team Flash, however, Barry's health was not the only thing they had on their plates.

"Seriously? An interview? You think _that's_ the best course of action?" Cisco demanded; Caitlin, standing by his side, shrugged, looking frustrated.

"I'm not saying it's _the_ best idea. But think about it: I know Singh has been trying to keep things under control as best as he can, but he can't get rid of their shock and curiosity. Everyone is dying for more information. If we actually give a little, things might calm down."

The source of the conversation, as well as the current tension, was the matter of Barry's identity exposure. While he had been getting better for the last two days, that situation hadn't improved at all; in fact, it seemed to get worse the longer the people of Central City went without any kind of answers. It left Team Flash stressed out and unsure how to proceed, and to add to all of it, Barry was still insisting he needed to talk to Shawna, though they had all been holding out on trying to deal with _that_ for as long as possible. At the moment at least, Caitlin hadn't even allowed him to leave the bed, let alone the room to talk to a criminal. Said doctor sighed at the look she was given not only from Cisco but Iris and Joe as well. The four of them were gathered in the Cortex, getting no closer to a solution.

"I'm with Cisco on this," Joe chimed in. "An interview is a bad idea."

"It could be a bad idea," Iris stated slowly. "But has anyone actually bothered to ask Barry what _he_ thinks? This is his life we're talking about here." Caitlin frowned.

"No," she admitted. "I thought we agreed to try and keep his mind off of the whole thing until he was better. We don't need him more stressed out than he already is while he's not fully healed."

"But he's doing so much better; he's nearly back to normal, you said so yourself," Iris protested. "He should be involved in this decision."

Caitlin still appeared skeptical, but Cisco came to Iris's rescue.

"Iris is right," he said firmly. "Barry has every right to be involved in this decision." The doctor of the group sighed.

"I know, you're right," she said. "We should go talk to him, then. I should be checking his vitals and injuries again anyways," she added, standing up. The other three followed suit, standing as well. As they began to walk towards the med bay, however, Cisco froze as he caught sight of one of the security monitors.

"Uhm, guys?" Caitlin, Iris and Joe immediately stopped in their tracks at his tone of voice, turning to face him.

"What is it?" Iris asked worriedly.

"Barry's not in the med bay," he said slowly, eyes still glued to the monitor. At those words, everyone immediately crowded around him to see for themselves what it was Cisco had spotted - and he was right. Barry wasn't in the med bay.

He was in the pipeline.

* * *

Barry wasn't a stupid man, although he was sure at this point, his friends and family would beg to differ. As he slid out of bed and carefully made his way down to the pipeline, he knew that it wouldn't be long before they found out he had ditched his bed and snuck off to the place he knew they did not want him to go. But this was something he felt he needed to do, and he refused to be stopped. Although, he did wish he was back at 100% so that he could use his speed without having to worry about there being any consequences as he continued to heal; moving at a normal pace - or less than normal, really, considering the fatigue that was still plaguing him - was almost agonizing. A trip that could have taken him a second took a full three minutes by his count, and he was sure he didn't have much time before his team went to check on him and discovered him missing.

Once down in the pipeline, he moved as fast as his weakened state allowed him to, and was able to get Shawna's cell in position rather quickly. As the door opened to reveal her, Barry felt a nervous pit in his stomach. Last time he had coherently been face-to-face with her, nothing good had come of it. But this was different, he told himself. This time the two of them were separated - and the circumstances were definitely not the same. The speedster leaned against one of the large metal pipes for support, biting at his already dry and cracked bottom lip.

As the teleporter's cell was revealed by the loudly-opening circular door, Barry watched her head snap up, an almost anxious expression shown on the girl's face. The one-way mirror gave him a perfect view of her, but she had no idea who had come to see her.

"Who's there?" she called out after a moment, standing up. Barry was silent for a moment, taking time to compose himself before speaking out.

"...it's Barry," he said finally, his tongue feeling heavy; the words felt foreign in his mouth, speaking his real name to someone who should not have known his identity. But of course, she did know his identity - everyone knew. Shawna taken aback; clearly, she had not expected the Flash himself to come to see her, her wide eyes and tense posture a dead giveaway.

"...Barry," she echoed, taking what looked like an unconscious step backward in the tiny space. She was quiet for a few seconds then before adding. "Are you going to kill me?"

It was Barry's turn to look taken aback, although he knew that she could not see the reaction. "No," he was quick to say. "I don't kill people." The girl seemed to relax slightly at the words, though she was still quite obviously on edge.

"Then why are you here?" she asked. "Why the hell would you want to see me?"

Barry paused another moment, closing his eyes for several seconds and taking a deep breath. The next words he spoke also felt odd, but he knew they were necessary - and that, even though it must have seemed incredibly strange, he meant them.

"Because I wanted to thank you," he said. Shawna's expression would have been comical, had the situation not been so serious. Her mouth moved like a fish out of water gasping in air, as if she were trying to form words but had no idea what to say. And in all honesty, she probably didn't. Barry had taken her by surprise, and he knew it.

"You wanted to _thank_ me?" she asked incredulously. "God, Mardon gave you brain damage - you're fucking crazy," she muttered, looking down at the floor of her cell briefly before lifting her head to look in his general direction again. " _Thank_ me?" she repeated. "I almost got you killed."

"But you didn't," Barry replied, his voice portraying a little more confidence. "In fact, you're the reason I'm still alive."

When the meta girl stayed quiet, uncomprehending, Barry pushed on.

"Listen, I know - I know that you organized this whole thing. But I'm also almost _positive_ Clay initiated it. Not that I'm saying you're innocent," he said, and Shawna looked down again, her face slightly guilty. "But I heard what you did," he added. "I don't - I don't really remember anything that happened after Snart blasted me. But I know that they would have tried to kill me, if you hadn't helped Snart fight them off. You helped save my life. So yes, I wanted to thank you."

"Oh...kay," Shawna replied almost skeptically, as if she still couldn't quite comprehend the fact that Barry was thanking her after what she had done.

"Look, Shawna," Barry started with a sigh. "I don't - I really don't think that you're…a bad person," he said slowly. "But I think a big part of that is…the crowd you get mixed up in. Clay, too. But by helping me when I really needed it, I think it shows that -"

"Barry!" The unmistakable voice of Caitlin echoed from behind him.

The speedster jumped and stumbled a bit at the sudden interruption, whirling around as fast as he dared to see his friends and family practically charging into the room, Caitlin leading the pack with a less-than-pleased expression on her face. The doctor reached the wall control panel in no time and immediately slammed the button that closed the door to the cell area, concealing the meta girl from sight and earshot. Judging by the look on not just her face but all of theirs, he was sure that one of them would have slapped him upside the head had he not still been recovering from his illness and concussion.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" Joe demanded harshly, stepping in before any of the others could. Barry nearly winced at the anger that seemed to resonate in his voice, but instead held his ground, not showing any regret for his actions.

"I was doing what I said I've been wanting to do for the past _two days_ ," he responded coolly. "If I tried to tell you I was coming down here, you would have tried to stop me."

"Of _course_ we would have!" Joe replied, his voice raised; he was shouting now. "I don't get you, Barry. How can you be so damn reckless!? First you go out to try and save the day when you know damn well you're in no condition to, get yourself kidnapped and nearly killed - and then you insist on talking to the one who nearly finished you off! You can't just _do_ these things, Barry!"

"Dad -" Iris started, trying to defuse the situation before it escalated any farther, but it was too late for that. Barry's previously calm facial expression morphed into one of anger.

"People needed my help, Joe!" He yelled right back. "I wasn't just going to leave them to get hurt or worse when I was the fastest one who could get there! And yeah, I wanted to come down here and have a damn conversation with Shawna without being told that I'm stupid or not thinking straight or not _allowed_ to! After everything that's happened, I would like to be in control of at least one Goddamn aspect of my life, if that's alright with you!" Joe seemed taken aback by the response, and everyone was quiet for a moment as Barry scowled at them all. But it didn't take long for them all to notice that the speedster's eyes were watering, and soon he was shoving past them, tapping into his speed to get away from their suddenly overbearing presence despite the fact that he knew he shouldn't have just yet.

By the time he made it back upstairs, he was dizzy from the action but soldiered through it, ducking into the treadmill room and closing the door behind him. He made it over to the treadmill and sat down on the edge of it, placing his head in his hands and trying to contain his emotions. He knew that they would be pissed that he had gone down to the pipeline; he had expected it. Yet somehow Joe's anger still seemed to get into his head - what right did _he_ have to be angry? Barry's life was the one falling apart. He knew that his friends, his family - they were affected by what had happened too. He _knew._ But he wished that they would at least try to understand where he was coming from - understand that yes, they were hurting, but he was hurting more.

When the door to the room creaked open several minutes later, he was still trying to get his feelings in check. He expected to see Iris standing there; she always seemed to be able to find him. But as he lifted his head slowly from his hands to look, he was caught off guard to see that it was actually Joe. For one tense moment, the two of them stayed in their respective spots, Barry on the treadmill and Joe standing in the doorway. But finally the detective moved, slowly but deliberately, to sit beside Barry on the treadmill. It was silent for several seconds before Joe also made the first move in speaking.

Taking a deep breath and looking sincerely at his foster son, he said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. It's just - Bar, you scared the hell out of us. Out of me. And I - it's hard for me to let go of that feeling, you know? The feeling of not knowing if we would lose you or not. And every time you asked to talk to her - and seeing you down there, talking to her - God, it just… brought all those feelings rushing right back up."

The detective paused, running a hand over his face before continuing.

"But I didn't even think about why you wanted to do it, your reasons. That you might have needed it, after…everything. I'm sorry."

Barry was quiet for several moments, soaking in Joe's apology and taking a calming deep breath of his own before replying.

"I'm sorry too," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm just - frustrated."

Joe reached out and placed a hand gently on Barry's shoulder.

"And you have every right to be," he said. "This is a frustrating situation. Stressful, too. And moreso for you than us, I'm sure. But it is going to be okay, Barry. You know that, right? We're going to make it through this, just like we've done with every other crazy curveball life has thrown our way. You're not alone in this." Barry managed the smallest of smiles at the encouraging words.

"I know," he said, and Joe smiled back.

"But can I ask you a question?" Barry gave him a curious look and noded. "Was that really the only reason you went down to see her? To feel in control?"

Barry sighed. "That was part of it," he admitted. "But I also…I needed to thank her," he said slowly, slightly fearing Joe's reaction; the detective raised his eyebrows, and Barry continued. "I know you're angry with her. I think I still am a little bit too, but - she's not a bad person, Joe. And she made the right choice, when it really mattered. She helped me."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to forgive her," Joe answered.

"And I don't ask you to," Barry said. "But I do. So for me, just please don't make any rash decisions when it comes to deciding what to do with her."

Joe let out a deep sigh. "Okay," he said. "Okay." Barry's smile widened the slightest bit, and Joe stood, offering his hand to his foster son.

"Now let's go back to the med bay before Caitlin has a fit. She only gave me five minutes until she comes barging in here herself to check on you." Barry couldn't help but chuckle as he grabbed Joe's hand and stood, the two of them walking side-by-side to where the rest of Team Flash waited.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, not a cliffhanger! That's got to feel good for the second time in a row. Anyways, next chapter will be focused on what they're actually going to do now that Barry's identity is out in the open! There will actually be interactions with the public. This story is wrapping up! Until next time!


	21. Newshounds

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Once again, sorry I didn't get this up sooner! College is kicking my ass right now XD. I had a lot of important writing assignments that I had to work on before finishing up my pleasure writing unfortunately. So this was sitting mostly-finished for the better part of a week, but I couldn't wrap it up. But it's done now! And I hope you enjoy!

 **Important:** On a side note, I do intend for the next chapter to be the last. So I genuinely hope that you all have liked this story, and do know that I am seriously considering working on a sequel for this at some point. So if some things seem not _quite_ completely resolved, or like there could be more to it, you know why ;)

* * *

"So you really think an interview's the best thing to do?" Barry asked Caitlin. The speedster was currently sitting at the edge of his temporary bed in the med bay, looking up at his friend and doctor. She had finished taking his vitals a few minutes ago and, deeming him okay, they had picked up the ongoing quest to figure out what to do about Barry's exposure. Iris, Joe and Cisco stood on either side of the bed, watching his reactions intently. Caitlin let out a sigh.

"It's the only thing I've come up with that makes any sense. We could set it up like a press conference. You know, let people get some of their questions and comments and concerns out, and then maybe they'll be more apt to leave you alone. But if you don't like the idea, I get it - no one's exactly fond of it," she admitted. "But we wanted to include you in the conversation, at least - see what you thought." Barry was quiet for several moments as he thought, though he smiled softly as he felt Iris place a comforting hand on his shoulder. Finally, he took a deep breath and spoke.

"I'll do it," he said.

Caitlin's eyebrows shot up, as if she hadn't exactly been expecting that answer.

"Seriously?" she asked, and Barry nodded.

"Bar, you realize people are going to have a _lot_ of questions, right? And that the entire city will probably show up. Are you prepared to deal with that?" Joe asked skeptically, clearly worried about how the whole thing would go; Barry nodded again.

"I can handle it, Joe," he said. "If it means a chance that people will get off my back, maybe finally stop camping out in front of STAR - it's worth a shot. Joe sighed but didn't protest further; Barry had a point, and he had clearly made up his mind. Once Barry made up his mind, stopping him was practically an impossibility.

"I can work on getting that set up," Cisco announced. "Shouldn't be too hard to get the message out."

"Hell, you could just shout it out the front door and everyone in the city would know within the hour," Iris said, and Cisco couldn't help but smile at that.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," he said.

"So we're actually doing this?" Caitlin asked, eyebrows still raised. "This is really happening?" There were nods all around.

"It's happening," Barry confirmed with a sigh. "And it should happen today. I'd like for us all to eventually be able to leave the premises without being swallowed up in a sea of reporters and stray fans."

"I should call Singh," Joe spoke up again after a moment. "The police force should probably be there to monitor it, just in case things get out of hand. Or a rogue meta shows up."

Barry seemed to pale slightly at that. Of course, he knew Joe was talking in terms of taking a meta down - Barry still wasn't completely back to normal. But the speedster couldn't help but think of an alternative meaning; it hadn't slipped his mind that with his secret out, it wasn't just the good guys that knew who he was, who his friends and family were - it was the bad guys, too. He had tried his best not to think too much about that, not wanting to work himself into a panic, but it was sort of inevitable. Iris, observant as ever, did not fail to notice.

"Hey," she said softly, squeezing his shoulder gently. "It's gonna be alright, Bar," she said. Barry closed his eyes momentarily, a series of emotions flashing across his face.

"None of this is alright, Iris," he said finally, his voice slightly choked up. "None of it. The reporters, the curious people, the fans - they're just part of it. _Everyone_ knows, criminals and rogue metas included. They know who I associate with - they'll know who to target when they want me."

"As if they haven't come after us before?" Caitlin interjected. "Barry, it's not a new thing. It happened even before everyone knew. Grodd got me and Joe at one point. Mardon _and_ Nimbus got Joe, Tony got Iris, and Snart got Cisco," she said. "And we handled it, every single time. We have each others' backs - we look out for each other. And none of us are going to go down easily. Plus, now that the secret's out, I'm sure we're also going to have the full police force behind us," she added, attempting a reassuring smile.

Some of the color seemed to slowly start to return to Barry's face, and he took a deep breath. He still wasn't happy with the way things had gone at all, how things would run in the future. But he couldn't change anything now, and Caitlin was right: they _did_ all look out for each other, and they _had_ always prevailed in the end. And having the police to fall back on didn't hurt either. If anyone was going to go after the ones he loved, they weren't going to do it without one hell of a fight.

"You're right," he breathed, and gave her a small smile in return. Cisco grinned and clapped him on the shoulder Iris's hand wasn't occupying, careful of the nearly-healed stab wound, and Joe very gently ruffled his hair.

"We've got this, son," the detective said, and Barry nodded, looking fondly at everyone in the room.

"Let's get this damn thing going."

* * *

As it turned out, Iris had been completely right: all it took was Cisco shouting out the front door to get things kicked into gear, and in record time, nearly all of the people of Central City were gathered in a makeshift, cordoned-off area in the middle of Central City Park Plaza. Barry and the Team were all in one of the STAR Labs vans, parked out of the way and out of view of the public - and the speedster was nervous.

"Bar, listen to me - you're gonna do great," Iris was telling him, both hands on either of his shoulders. "I believe in you. And we're all gonna be up there with you, okay? So if there's something you feel you can't answer, we've got it. Just breathe."

Barry took a deep breath and nodded, offering Iris a slightly anxious smile.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, let's do this."

With the words said, the team jumped into action, filing out of the van and sticking close to each others' sides as they walked to where everyone was waiting. With such short notice, there hadn't been much time for the city to prepare anything, but someone had managed to scrounge up a microphone and microphone stand on a small platform for the event. And as soon as Team Flash stepped onto said platform, the huge crowd erupted into a mixture of shouts, cheers, and excited chatter. Video cameras started rolling, cameras flashing. Barry nearly shrank back from the noise, utterly unused to such a big fuss being made over him. Seeing Singh and several other familiar police officers lining the front of the platform eased his anxiety somewhat, knowing that they separated him and his friends and family from the frenzy. Normally, that would be a kind of ridiculous thing to be soothed by - he could be out of here in seconds if he truly wanted to. But he still wasn't technically supposed to be running, and there was absolutely no way he could currently handle flashing his team away as well if anything were to happen.

Taking a deep breath, he gave Singh a small, thankful smile and nod before walking slowly over to the microphone stand. If he thought the noise was overwhelming, it almost seemed more so when it all nearly immediately died down at the sight of him there, ready. He stood awkwardly for several seconds, staring out at the crowd as they stared intently back, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco and Joe's presence giving a little comfort as they stood behind him. Finally, he spoke.

"Hey, everyone," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and then dropping his hand back to his side. "Thanks, uh - for coming, on such short notice. My name is Barry Allen, but I guess you knew that." He paused again, swallowing a lump in his throat, and felt Iris reach out to grab his hand briefly, giving it a quick squeeze. It gave him the courage to take another deep breath and press on.

"So, as you all know, there was recently some rather…shocking news released to the public," he said, finding himself still unwilling to speak what had once been a close-kept secret aloud to so many people; it didn't feel right. "And I know that - that you're all kind of, well, shocked, and surprised and - you get the gist. So the point of this, I guess, is to let you guys ask some questions, and, ah, clear some things up. So - does anyone have any questions?"

It was a stupid thing to ask; of _course_ everyone had questions. That was exactly why they were there. The words had barely left his mouth when every single hand in the crowd shot up. Barry found himself staring at them all again for several seconds, his heart pounding, that overwhelming feeling still encasing him. The only thing that got him going again was Iris once more, gently nudging his shoulder blade, a prodding to continue but also a reminder of his loved ones standing behind him.

"Uhm, blue shirt and glasses," he said, quickly choosing the first person his eyes locked on in the sea of people. The man who was chosen beamed, clearly excited to be the first person to get to talk.

"Mr. Allen, thank you, this is an honor." Barry shifted awkwardly. "My question is: how exactly did you become the Flash? Of course, we all know it had to do with the Particle Accelerator - but what other variable specifically caused your unique set of powers?" A murmur spread through the crowd in anticipation before quieting down; clearly everyone else had been wondering the same thing.

"It was lightning - and chemicals," Barry answered after a brief pause. "The, uh - the night the Particle Accelerator exploded, I was in my lab at CCPD. When I went to go close the skylight, a lightning bolt came through and hit me. The blast knocked me into a rack of chemicals, and I ended up in a coma for 9 months. And when I woke up…" Barry trailed off; everyone was smart enough to figure out the rest without him having to physically say it. He still didn't know if he could, really. It was one thing to know that everybody knew he was the Flash; it was another to admit it, to say it outright to everyone. He didn't want to, nor did he need to. It was enough information to satisfy, anyways. The man who had asked it appeared awed.

"Wow," he said. "Thank you."

Barry gave an awkward nod. "Next?" the speedster asked, and once again every hand shot straight up into the air. He scanned the crowd and picked out a somewhat professional-looking woman with a notepad, most likely from a news station.

"Uh, yeah, blonde hair in the sweater dress," Barry said, pointing in the general direction of the woman. Her face seemed to light up as well at being called upon, and she gripped her pen tighter, ready to write.

"Hi, Flash. Penny here from Channel 8 News. I was just wondering - how fast _are_ you, exactly?" Barry relaxed slightly at the question, even managing a miniscule smile. This one was less personal than the last and, just as the man prior to her, she seemed so excited.

"I can get to a little over Mach 3 at the moment," he said, looking a bit sheepish at the looks of shock many of the faces in the crowd displayed. "And still working on improving." The woman who had asked the question beamed at him and then ducked her head down to look at her notepad, quickly starting to scribble down his answer. Before Barry could even open his mouth to ask for more questions again, hands immediately shot back up. There was no way he would have time to get to everyone, he thought, but hopefully the ones he did get to answer would serve the intended purpose of the whole event.

"Man with the purple shirt and sunglasses," Barry called out next, and watched him carefully; he didn't seem to get excited as the previous two had, and instead seemed rather serious.

"My question," the man said loudly, "Is how did the city savior manage to get himself kidnapped and beaten silly by the very metahumans your friends from STAR created and you're supposed to protect us from?"

Barry was unprepared for the accusation, the hint of anger and arrogance in the man's voice. He froze, his heart once again hammering in his chest, feeling the utter embarrassment and agony of the situation flowing back to him. He couldn't speak, didn't even know what to say - but someone, thankfully, seemed to know exactly how to respond. Everyone else had barely reacted when Iris charged forward, moving in a blink to stand in front of Barry and shoot daggers at the man who had spoken. If looks could kill, the speedster thought idly, he'd fall dead on the spot.

"You've got a lot of nerve," she seethed. "This man has worked his ass off every day to keep this city safe. Every. Single. Day. Every once in a damn while, there's going to be a bump in the road. And this particular bump, by the way, was caused when he tried to protect everyone from five angry metahumans. What do you have to say about _that?_ "

Apparently, he had nothing else to say. He shrank back from Iris's words, quickly working on blending back in with the crowd.

"This press conference is _over._ Thank you for your time," Iris announce sternly after that. Noises of disappointment filtered through the people, many shouting out more questions in a last-ditch attempt.

Iris grabbed ahold of a still somewhat-stunned Barry and started to pull him gently away.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Wow, this is like the last time I'll get to say "until next time" for this story if all goes according to plan. I'll miss working on this! But like I said, a sequel is a large possibility, and I have plans in the work for a new story after this is done that I am super excited about! And of course, more one-shots will be on the way too. So anyways, until next time, guys!


	22. Second Chances

**Author's Note:** Don't kill me, I know it's short. But there wasn't much to wrap up, considering I am leaving things open for the sequel I plan to do. However, just be aware that it won't come right away! I have already started a new story that I think you all will enjoy; sequel planning will commence after that! I hope you guys have enjoyed this story, and I hope that you will enjoy what is to come! A special thank you to TrueLoveExists02 for always reviewing, sticking with me and helping me out whenever I needed advice or information to continue! You are truly something amazing! Anyways, here is the final chapter!

* * *

After the incident at the press conference, it hadn't taken long for the team to get back to STAR and regroup. Things hadn't, however, exactly calmed down. Barry was sitting by the computer monitors, his head in his hands as he listened to Iris continue to rant as she paced back and forth next to him.

"I mean _seriously,_ " she was saying. "What an asshole! That was totally uncalled for."

Barry sighed. "He wasn't completely out of line," he muttered, running his hands through his hair. The journalist stopped dead in her tracks, turning her head to look at him with an expression of disbelief.

"Bartholomew Henry Allen," she reprimanded. "Don't you dare say that. He was _completely_ out of line. You do absolutely everything in your power to keep everyone safe, and you _did_. The only reason you didn't stop them was because you were in no shape to do so, which is perfectly understandable."

"The entire city saw that I was weak, Iris," he countered. "How are they ever going to trust me to handle anything ever again?"

"Bar," Caitlin cut in before Iris could. "Did you see the people there? How excited they were to get the chance to talk to you?" she asked. "Okay, so one guy had the nerve to question you; even _before_ this happened, you knew you didn't have the support of every single person in Central City. That's impossible! So maybe they're a little bolder now that they know who you are, but it doesn't matter. What does matter is the love and support you'll get from the ones who know you do good - and from us."

Barry closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, letting Caitlin's words sink in. He opened them again as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see Joe smiling softly at him.

"They're right, you know," he said, and both girls looked pleased at the remark. "This doesn't change anything, Barry. The people who really believe in you won't be so easily swayed because of one person, or one incident."

"And besides," Cisco cut in, "I'm pretty sure Iris made any doubters seriously rethink their positions. That guy looked terrified that she would bite his head off or something," he said with a grin, and Iris gave him an amused look. Barry couldn't help but smile softly. In the moment, he had been less than thrilled. Now that he thought about it, however, that guy had looked thoroughly scared. Iris did tend to have the effect on people quite easily when she wanted to.

"Well, Iris is pretty terrifying," the speedster replied with a light teasing tone. Iris smacked his arm playfully, looking quite happy to spot the small smile on his face.

"And don't you forget it," she teased in return; Barry chuckled.

"So you're okay then?" Caitlin asked after a few moments, looking at him sympathetically. The hero hesitated only for a moment before nodding.

"...I am," he said. "Everything - everything is still…weird," he added. "And I think it will be for a while. "But I have you guys," he continued, his smile widening a bit as he slowly looked around at each of the four people standing around him. "And I really think that we can handle anything together."

The words brought out grins from everyone.

"Okay, this is too good to not be a group hug moment," Cisco said, a wide grin once again plastered on his face, and Barry laughed as his friends and family converged on him, crushing him in a tight hug.

"Alright, guys, can't breathe - slowly suffocating," Barry said after a few moments, eliciting laughs as the team backed away and smiled at him as he stood. He smiled back.

* * *

It was a few hours later, as Cisco and Caitlin finally got the sleep they deserved and Iris and Joe went to their respective jobs to work on damage control that Barry found his feet carrying him once again down to the Pipeline, though this time without having to sneak around. The speedster drew in a deep breath as he made it and opened up the door that would reveal Shawna's cell. Upon hearing the noise, the meta girl's head snapped up, eyes staring out even though Barry knew she could not see anything beyond the special glass.

"...Barry?" she asked hesitantly, unsure who had come down to visit.

"Yeah," Barry answered after a moment. "It's me." She seemed to visibly relax slightly.

"What are you doing back down here?" she questioned, clearly remembering what had happened the last time he had attempted to speak to her; they hadn't gotten far before everyone else had come barging in.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," the speedster replied, and the girl shook her head in a sort of disbelief, obviously still finding his concern over her strange.

"I'm holding up fine. What about you?"

"Much better," he assured, and he could see the small relief that seemed to grace her features. "Listen," he continued after a moment. "I just - I wanted you to know that I talked to Joe. Detective West," he clarified, in case she only knew the man by his title. "And while he isn't willing to forgive so easily, and doesn't exactly agree with my viewpoint…I asked him not to be so rash, in deciding what to do with you. And he agreed."

Shawna looked shocked. "You…why would you do that?" she asked.

Barry let out a soft sigh. "Because like I said before, Shawna - I don't think you're a bad person. You did some bad things, but you've also showed that you have a conscience. You have regret. And that's a step in the right direction."

Shawna nodded slowly. "So then…what does that mean?" she asked after a moment. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I don't know yet," Barry admitted. "Joe and Captain Singh are really the ones who are going to get final say, once things start to calm down. But I'll - I'll keep you in the loop. And I'll do whatever I can to make sure it's not bad. But you know, you have to put effort in, to make it work. If you want to live a normal life, Shawna, and be a decent person - you have to work for it. You need to show everyone else that side of you that knew what you were doing was wrong."

Shawna nodded again, her face serious, and she spoke again after a few seconds of silence.

"Barry?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"...thank you," she said sincerely. "Seriously. I never - I feel like I don't deserve how kind you've been, after what I did. No one's ever believed in me like this. I'll do whatever I can to make this right."

"I thought you would," Barry said with a soft smile. "I'm gonna head back upstairs. But - I'll be back, okay?"

"...I look forward to it, Flash," Shawna replied, a small smile of her own forming.

With that said, Barry stepped back and once again closed the entrance to the cells, turning on his heel to go back up to the Cortex with a soft smile still on his face.

Things were far from perfect. His identity was outed, they still had to come to some decision about Shawna's fate, and Roy Bivolo and Nathan Bliss were still somewhere at large. But despite the way fate seemed to have it out for him and his team, Barry was confident that they could face whatever was next thrown their way. He was still the fastest man alive, and he had one hell of a support system - and they would face these new challenges together.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well, that's it guys! But like I said, look out for the sequel in the future! Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited and followed: your support means the world to me!


End file.
